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Deni’s International Library 

of Books on Music 

EDITED BY 

A. EAGLEFIELD-HULL, Mus.Doc. 


MONTEVERDI 











CLAUDIO MONTEVERDI 


[From the portrait reproduced in the “ Fiort Poetict”® (1644), in 
the possession of the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan.]| 


5 


MONTEVERDI 


HIS LIFE AND WORK 


i i i i i i a i 





| 


PPPPLPDLLPLPOLP_P—PO—_—LLOPJ”P—L_LT—L_O_”P™OLP_I 


BY 


HENRY PRUNIERES 





TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH BY 


MARIE D. MACKIE 


WITH NUMEROUS MUSIC EXAMPLES 


NEW YORK 
Beebe wT LON .& COMPANY 


PEPE EEL EEE RRP Dw 





FOREWORD 


Tue object of the present volume is to combine the story 
of Monteverdi’s life with a critical study of his works. In 
spite of long and patient research in Italian archives, it has 
been possible to add here relatively little new material to 
the biography of the Master. On this subject, all that 
matters has been published long since. The investigations 
of Padre Caf (1858), Padre Canal, S. Davari (1885), Angelo 
Solerti, Ademollo, Picenardi, and Emilio Vogel have pro- 
vided documents which permit of a complete reconstitution 
of the life of the great musician, and it is in view of such a 
reconstitution that I have considered Monteverdi as far as 
possible in relation to the artistic circle in which he moved, 
among the composers contemporary to him, and that I have 
dwelt upon the life of the courts and cities in which his 
passionate life was lived, in which his talent was formed and | 
matured. 

The work of Monteverdi has, up to the present, been 
the subject of fragmentary and specialized studies only. 
The works of Goldschmidt, Alfred Heuss, Leichtentritt, 
Vogel, Riemann, Ambros, Kretschmar, and Cesari respec- 
tively, have borne upon particular aspects of a genius which, 
ondoyant et divers, is disconcerting in its multiplicity. In 
my opinion, it is Romain Rolland who, without embarking 
upon a technical study of the work of Monteverdi, has given 
us the profoundest judgments of it. With an intuition 
bordering upon genius, he has entered into Monteverdi’s 


very soul, and defined synthetically the essential character- 
Vv 


vi FOREWORD 


istics of his art. One can only regret that he should have 
confined himself to the dramatic works, and that he should 
have found no occasion to speak of the madrigals, of the 
sacred music, of the songs and cantatas, which are equally 
important. I have tried to throw light upon every aspect 
of Monteverdi’s creative activity. 1 do not pretend, how- 
ever, to have exhausted so vast a subject. Only a small 
part of his work has appeared as yet. Of the last collections 
of madrigals, of the scherzi, the canzonette, of all the religious 
compositions, only ancient editions in separate parts exist. 
Frequently these parts are scattered and the tezor has to be 
copied at Bologna, the superius at Breslau, and so on. | 
have tried to give an idea of the different styles practised 
successively or simultaneously by Monteverdi, and I believe 
that I am the first to make this attempt. Whilst the esthetic 
ideal of the master varied little, yet his methods were con- 
tinually modified in the course of time; I have tried to mark 
the stages of this evolution. 

Though Monteverdi was incontestably a great inventor 
of new forms, no one was more sensitive to surrounding 
influences. Certainly he saw clearly much that some of his 
contemporaries saw dimly, and achieved what others had 
scarcely dared to attempt; but it seemed to me necessary, 
in order the better to explain the true significance of this 
master, who was without doubt the greatest of Italian 
musicians, to study his work in relation to that of his con- 
temporaries and rivals. 

I hope that those readers who find the critical study of 
his work too arduous will find some interest in the biography, 
rich in dramatic events, of a musician who knew the life of 
courts and camps, and whose great soul laboured under 
afHiction for many years. 


MONTEVERDI AT CRE 
I, 
Il. 


CONTENTS 


PAR EAE 


Earty YEARS 


Tue Five Booxs or MapriGALs AND THE SCHERZI 


PART Il 


MONA AND MANTUA (1567-1613) 


3 
a7 


THE DRAMATIC SPECTACLES AT THE COURT OF MANTUA 


I, 
II. 
sane 


ORFEO 
ARIANNA AND THE CELEBRATIONS OF 1608 


MOoNTEVERDI AND THE GoNZAGA FAMILY 


PART III 
MONTEVERDI AT VENICE (1613-1643) 
Tue CuapeLt or San Marco . 
Monteverpi’s Sacred Music . 
Operas AND Court SPECTACLES (1615-1630) 
From tHe Mapricat to THE Cantata (1615-1638) 
Tue VENETIAN OPERAS 


Last Years AND Deatu or MonrTeverpI 


APPENDICES 


Notes . 


CATALOGUE OF MonTEVERDI’s WorKS . 


Compete List or MOontTEVERDI’s CORRESPONDENCE 


SELECTED LETTERS FROM MOonrtTEVERDI’s CORRESPONDENCE. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


INDEX 


vil 


55 
72 
88 


99 
109 
129 
vss 
167 


190 


207 
219 
7S 
231 
288 
291 





RAKE 1 


MONTEVERDI AT CREMONA AND 
MANTUA (1567-1613) 


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I 


mane CDhARS 
1567-1605 


On May 15th, 1567, Baldassare Monteverdi had his first- 
born child baptized in the church of SS. Nazari e Celso at 
Cremona, and gave him the names of Claudio Zuan 
Antonio.* , 

Baldassare, a doctor by profession, was in relatively easy 
circumstances, a worthy citizen, a man of culture and 
authority, devoted. body and soul to the interests of his 
family, and gifted with a shrewd sense of the value of money. 
Such, at least, is the impression we get of him in his letters. 
There were many Monteverdis in Cremona, and it would 
be hazardous to try to establish bonds of family relationship 
between all whose names appear in the records of the town, 
yet it is evident that among his collateral relations and his 
ancestors, Claudio numbered doctors and musicians, or at 
least musical instrument makers.} 

Cremona was celebrated, from the sixteenth century 
onward, for musical instrument workshops in which all kinds 
of stringed and wind instruments were skilfully manu- 
factured. Charles IX of France sent to Cremona for violins 
for his musicians, and in 1585 the Duke of Mantua ordered 
wooden trumpets (trombetti di legno) from a maker whose 
name was no other than Domenico Monteverdi.t 

The inhabitants of Cremona were renowned for their 
industry and fine workmanship. They excelled as much in 


* See Note I. Tt See Note 2. t See Note 3. 
3 


4 CREMONA AND MANTUA 


the weaving of delicate fabrics of silk and linen mixed as 
in the manufacture of violins of perfect shape. The Spanish 
rule, which weighed heavily upon the town, had not at this 
time succeeded in ruining its prosperity with taxes, corvées 
and levies. The severity of the foreign administration was 
tempered by the influence, temporal as well as spiritual, of 
Carlo Borromeo, a saint and a man of action, far-sighted 
and passionately devoted to his country. Attentive to his 
wise counsel, the Governor of Milan, to whose authority 
Cremona was subject, refrained from any systematic molesta- 
tion of the Italians such as was later carried on by the 
Viceroy Fuentes, who, perturbed by Campanella’s enterprise 
at Naples, and by the spirit of revolt which was manifesting 
itself among the peoples of Lombardy, turned the whole of 
Milan into an entrenched camp, ruining the citizens with 
crushing taxation, and the peasants with the enforced housing 
and feeding of his hordes of ruthless and greedy mercenaries. 

Cremona was destined to suffer particularly from the 
Spanish exactions. The pride, the courage, the independent 
spirit of its inhabitants gave cause for anxiety. They gloried 
in their descent from ancient Roman families, and still looked 
back to the time when Signor Gabrino Fondulio, finding 
himself the object of the simultaneous adulation of Emperor 
Sigismund and Pope John XXIII, had, from the height of 
the gigantic Torrazo, displayed to these masters of the world 
the red city of Cremona girdled with high ramparts flanked 
with massive towers, with its palaces, its churches, its squares, 
its broad streets, and in the distance the fertile plain covered 
with rich crops, the vines hanging from the trunks of elm 
and poplar, the countless mills along the canal-banks, and 
the villages and castles with white walls gleaming through 
the verdure. 

The inhabitants of Cremona, justifiably proud of their 
town, boasted of the Torrazo, ‘‘ the wonder of Europe,” the 


EARLY YEARS 5 


highest tower in Italy, and even, they said, in the world; 
of the cathedral in which were preserved the relics of more 
than one hundred and sixty saints; and finally of the very 
air they breathed, that aria di Cremona, so pure, so healthy, 
without its like in Italy. It would seem as though the 
temple, whose traces are to be seen near the gate of San 
Michele, erected, according to tradition, by the Romans to 
the Goddess Fever, had averted from the entire district the 
pestilence which ravaged the neighbouring provinces.* 

The Emperor Sigismund had endowed Cremona with a 
university, the statutes and privileges of which were copied 
from those of the famous universities of Paris and Bologna. 
Though fallen from its ancient splendour, it maintained in 
the town a centre of culture. It was doubtless at this 
university that Claudio Monteverdi studied the humanities. 
It is certain that he received a sound education, thanks to 
which he was able subsequently to read the classics with 
profit, particularly Plato, whose doctrine was a constant 
subject of meditation with him. His correspondence shows 
evidence of a culture remarkable even at a time when musicians 
were on the whole more lettered than they usually are to-day. 

He was certainly brought up in good middle-class sur- 
roundings, where art and letters were held in high esteem. 
His elder brother, Giulio Cesare, became, like himself, a 
musician, and this would lead us to believe that Baldassare 
Monteverdi was not hostile to his sons’ vocation.t For that 
matter, music was so highly esteemed that there were at 
that time few professions in which it was possible to acquire 
so much honour and material benefit. 

It is extremely likely that Monteverdi was at first a pupil 
of the choir-school of the cathedral. It was customary at 
that time for the Maestro di Cappella to teach his pupils not 
only church-singing, but also the rudiments of counterpoint and 


* See Note 4. { See Note 5. 


6 CREMONA AND MANTUA 


composition. Monteverdi, moreover, refers to himself as a 
pupil of the Maestro di Cappella of the cathedral in the titles 
of his first works. As it happened, his master, Marc Antonio 
Ingegneri, was one of the foremost of Italian composers. 
Monteverdi could not have been in better hands, for fiery 
temperaments, naturally impatient of discipline, require to 
learn self-control in submission to the strict laws of art, 
before they can allow themselves by their own mastery to 
infringe those laws. | 

There was in Ingegneri something of the man of genius. 
His true value has gradually been acknowledged since his 
recognition as the author of twenty-seven responses, wrongly 
published under the name of Palestrina, which indeed would 
be worthy of that great musician if they were not written 
in a style absolutely different from that of the Maestro of 
Proeneste.* Ingegneri initiated his pupil into the secrets 
of counterpoint. He taught him to construct a motet and 
a mass in severe style, as well as to write canzonette, villanelle 
and madrigals with all the liberties permitted in these 
forms. At the same time he taught him singing and 
instrumental music. His reputation was equally great as 
organist and as violist, and under his direction Claudio soon 
attained a high degree of technical skill in playing several 
instruments. 

At eighteen years of age, Monteverdi published his first 
works—spiritual madrigals for four voices—and had them : 
published at Brescia with a dedication to Alessandro Fran- 
ganesco, a rich citizen of Cremona. ‘This work is dated 
July 31st, 1583. Unfortunately, only the bass part is 
extant, and it is not possible to form from it any idea of 
Monteverdi’s talent at this time. 

The following year, the Canzonette a tre voci appeared at 
Venice. In this graceful and popular genre, in which extreme 

* See Note 6. 


EARLY YEARS ; 


liberty of composition was not only tolerated, but to a certain 
extent consciously cultivated, Monteverdi already gave 
evidence of remarkable gifts. It was, however, in his first 
book of madrigals for five voices, published in 1587 by 
Gardano of Venice, that his budding genius first became 
manifest. In the title of this book, as in those of the pre- 
ceding collections, he calls himself the pupil of Marc Antonio 
Ingegneri, but a perusal of the work soon shows how faithless 
the disciple was. 

These madrigals are dedicated to a nobleman of Cremona, 
Count Marco Verita, who. had patronised the author at his 
début, as Monteverdi shows in his preface. ‘‘ I beseech my 
Lord, accept these madrigals as a simple testimony of my 
gratitude for the favours I have received at your hands. 
.. . And I can expect for compositions so youthful no 
other praise than that which is accorded to the flowers of 
poring, * 

Whilst this book is permeated with an exquisite atmo- 
sphere of youth, a study of the works which it contains reveals, 
as we shall see later, a command of technique, a boldness 
of composition extraordinary in an adolescent. Monteverdi’s 
originality develops and becomes more striking in each of 
the succeeding books of madrigals. 

He seems, however, to have been preoccupied with the 
problem of obtaining a settled situation. He went to Milan, 
and there won general praise for his talent as violist and 
composer.t In 1590 he dedicated his second book of 
madrigals to a Milanese amateur, Giacomo Ricardi. It is 
quite possible that it was during his stay at Milan that Monte- 
verdi was brought to the notice of the Duke of Mantua, who 
was always on the watch for genuine talent. In any case, 
it was in the capacity of violist that he was engaged by Duke 
Vincenzo in the same year. 

* See Note 7. t See Note 8. 


8 CREMONA AND MANTUA 


Mantua was at this time disputing with Venice and Ferrara 
the artistic hegemony of Northern Italy. For two centuries 
poets, painters, musicians, sculptors, architects had been 
flocking thither from every corner of Europe, in the certainty 
of finding honour and material advantage. 

When Monteverdi entered the service of the Gonzaga 
family, Duke Vincenzo had been reigning for three years, 
and had spent much time on the reorganization and extension 
of his company of musicians. He had inherited from his 
father, Duke Guglielmo, a veritable passion for literature 
and the arts, and had become something of a connoisseur. 
He dabbled in poetry himself, and cultivated the society of 
artists and men of learning. He liberated Tasso, protected 
Galilei, attracted Pourbus and Rubens to his court, kept the 
most famous company of actors in Italy, and, as we shall see, 
contributed to enlightening Monteverdi upon the true direc- 
tion of his genius by commissioning him to write musical 
dramas. 

Vincenzo was the type incarnate of the princes of the 
Italian Renaissance, devoted to display, to fétes, plays, balls, 
ballets, generous and cruel,* assassinating without hesita- . 
tion any artist who failed them, overwhelming with gifts 
those who served them well. As a youth, he had been 
feared for his violence and cruelty. In 1582 his father had 
even banished him from his territory as the result of the 
cowardly assassination of the Scottish humanist, James 
Crichton—l’ammirabile Critonio. Meeting him one night, 
Vincenzo collided violently against him in the dark; Crichton 
drew his sword, and they fought. At Vincenzo’s cry, “‘ Hold, 
Scot, I am the Prince,” Crichton knelt and delivered his 
sword. Vincenzo took it and plunged it in his heart. ‘Ten 
years later, Vincenzo had settled down considerably; but 
not so much as to justify us in agreeing with the historian 


* See Note 9. 


EARLY YEARS 9 


who finds in his foppish face the mark of a magnanimous 
spirit. 

Big and broad, fresh-coloured like a German, with blue 
eyes, thin hair curling on the temples, his face elongated by 
a short pointed beard, he was still handsome at nearly fifty 
years of age, and dressed sumptuously. There was much talk 
in Italy of his amorous adventures, and of the circumstances of 
his first marriage, which he had had annulled after some 
strange machinations. He got on well with his second 
wife, Eleanora de’ Medici, who was indifferent to his manner 
of life. 

He displayed extraordinary ardour in the pursuit of his 
pleasures. Love or music, the chase or the theatre, painting 
or alchemy, absorbed him successively. He brought as 
much diplomacy to bear on the purchase of Raphael’s Madonna 
‘from the Canossa as on the acquisition of a province. Like 
his ancestors, who loved to have their portraits painted on 
the walls of their palaces with their favourite dogs and horses, 
he had a passion for these animals. His stables and kennels 
were famous. He was a great traveller, and visited Germany, 
France, Flanders, Hungary, Holland and Lorraine. He 
fought thrice against the Turks. Invariably accompanied by 
a splendid suite, he traversed Europe in search of pictures to 
buy, or artists to attach to his court. 

There was at times something morbid in this perpetual 
agitation. Rubens’ fine portrait gives him a strange expres- 
sion. Vincenzo lacked his father’s admirable mental balance. 
He was surrounded with astrologers and alchemists, to the 
despair of his wife, who knew that many a foreign court was 
chuckling over the prince who spent whole nights in breathless 
pursuit of the great secret. 

From the moment of his accession, Vincenzo had busied 
himself in engaging the best musicians of Italy for his com- 


pany. His Maestro di Cappella was the Dutch Giaches de 


10 CREMONA AND MANTUA 
Wert, who had held the post since 1565. ‘This remarkable 


composer of madrigals and motets was much appreciated by 
musicians and highly esteemed by the prince. Yet he had 
passed through difficult times. ‘The singers under his direc- 
tion had for years persecuted him outrageously. The most 
desperate of them all had even conceived the idea of wreaking 
vengeance on him by seducing his wife.* But time had 
passed, and the old composer was universally respected when 
Monteverdi settled in Mantua. 

Towards 1581 Giaches de Wert had handed over the 
choir of the ducal chapel of Santa Barbara to his second-in- 
command, the excellent composer, Gian Giacomo Gastoldi, 
who, about the time that Monteverdi entered the service of 
the Gonzagas, was on the point of gaining an immense repu- 
tation throughout Europe by his charming Bal/eti, or chansons 
a danser for four or five voices, which could, however, easily 
be sung by a solo voice with lute accompaniment, or played 
by instruments for dancing. Few works, towards the end 
of the sixteenth century, had as great a success. Editions 
were published in various towns in Italy, France, Flanders 
and Germany.t Gastoldi was not only an elegant court 
musician; he had written with equal success a large number 
of masses, motets, and canticles (/aude). 

At Mantua, Monteverdi was also in touch with the cele- 
brated composer of sacred music, Viadana, Maestro di Cappella 
at the cathedral (San Pietro). The detail is important, for 
Viadana probably exercised some influence on Monteverdi’s 
earliest religious compositions. 

The organist of Santa Barbara at the same period was 
the composer Francesco Rovigo, who, having studied at 
Venice under Claudio Merulo, had returned to the court 
of Mantua after some years in Germany. He died on 
October 7th, 1597, one year later than Giaches de Wert.f 


* See Note Io. +t See Note II. t See Note 12. 


EARLY YEARS II 


A Cremonese composer, Benedetto Pallavicini, who had 
been in the service of the Duke since 1582, then became 
Maestro di Cappella. We was an artist of some eminence 
who had given proof of his talent by the publication of a 
large number of sacred and secular compositions. He died 
on November 26th, 1601. Monteverdi, already Maestro di 
Camera, succeeded him.* 

During the whole reign of Vincenzo there was so much 
coming and going among the musicians that it is very difficult 
to establish even approximately the membership either of 
the Cappella or of the Camera. We know that some dozen 
singers, who numbered among them composers of note, 
figured on the budget of the Cappella when Monteverdi 
entered the Duke’s service. He must during some time 
have been a member of this company. He 1s called cantore 
by a functioriary of the court, in a letter dated September 23rd, 
1594. We know, however, from the dedication of his third 
book of Madrigals that it was by virtue of his talent as violist 
that he was summoned to Mantua.{ 

There was a very large number of instrumental performers 
at the court. Bertolotti quotes the name of seven violists 
in the pay of the Duke during the year 1597.8 Occasionally 
they formed a little orchestra for dancing, but generally they 
performed alone, or took part in madrigals. Indeed, after 
1580 a madrigal was rarely sung a cappella. Most frequently, 
instruments and voices were combined, the instruments 
sometimes doubling the voices, sometimes replacing them. 
On the other hand, it was the exception for an orchestra to 
play compositions specially written for instruments, a fashion 
common in France. ‘The Florentine company, the Francesini, 
formed and directed by a Frenchman, aroused the delighted 
wonder of the musicians, who confessed that they had never 


* See Note 13. t See Note 14. 
t See Note 15. § See Note 16. 


12 CREMONA AND MANTUA 


heard a concert given by a large number of different instruments 
playing together.* 

Monteverdi, who was both an instrumentalist and a singer, 
must often have taken an active part in the performance of 
his own madrigals, and thus have found himself in continual 
relations with the Duke’s singers, men and women. The 
latter formed a large and choice company. Vincenzo was 
very proud of them, and only permitted them to perform in 
public on solemn occasions, reserving to himself the pleasure 
of private performances. : 

The letters published by Ademollo t+ give us an idea of 
the extraordinary pains the Duke would take to attract to 
his court a woman-singer whose talent had been brought 
to his notice by his correspondents. A treaty with a neigh- 
bouring state gave him less trouble than the engagement of 
a virtuosa such as the famous Adriana Basile, who for many 
years graced his court. The engagement of the exquisite 
Caterinuccia Martinelli completely wore out all the Duke’s 
secretaries. It was not enough to have the most satisfactory 
information about her voice; they must find out whether 
this child of thirteen years was virtuous and chaste; they 
had to decide whether Giulio Caccini at Florence, or Monte- 
verdi at Mantua, should take her training in hand; and, 
when they had decided for Monteverdi, her itinerary from 
Rome, her native city, had to be drawn up in the most 
minute detail. We shall have elsewhere occasion to speak of 
the principal women-singers of the court in discussing the 
performances of the Orfeo and the Arianna. 

Among those who belonged to what Ademollo irreverently 
calls the musical harem of the Duke was the daughter of 
one of the violists of the Court, Claudia Cataneo. Monte- 
verdi appears to have fallen in love with her only a few months 
after his arrival at Mantua, and married her with Vincenzo’s 

* See Note 17. Tt See Note 18. 


EARLY YEARS sone a 


consent. By her he had two sons, Francesco and Massi- 
miliano, to whose future he later devoted himself with 
passionate attention.* 


A short time after his marriage, Monteverdi received 
orders to prepare for a long journey. Vincenzo had decided 
to conduct in person the troops he had raised to the assist- 
ance of the Emperor Rodolph, who was being threatened 
by the new Sultan, Mohammed III. Magnificent as ever, 
the Duke of Mantua was accompanied on this warlike expe- 
dition by a large troop of courtiers and servants necessary to 
his habits or his pleasures. Among them were several of 
his favourite singers. Claudio Monteverdi numbered among 
his travelling companions the eunuch Feodoro Bacchino, 
and the bass-singers Serafino Terzo and G. B. Marinoni.t 
The latter seems to have been his particular friend. At 
the evening halt, in the Duke’s tent, Monteverdi and his 
companions would frequently receive orders to perform 
madrigals, singing and playing their parts on various 
instruments. 

We do not know what were the musician’s impressions 
during the unfortunate campaign of 1576. Rodolph’s 
army arrived too late to prevent the Turks from taking the 
fortress of Erlau on the Transylvanian frontier, and finally 
suffered the heavy defeat of Keresztes, by which the Sultan 
became master of almost the whole of Hungary. Was 
Monteverdi present at these battles? Did he hear the 
groans of the dying on the battlefields, the distant thunder 
of the cavalry attack? It seems probable. In any case, 
the fact that he knew camp-life at first hand, that he had 
shared the fatigue of armed men riding through distant 

* See Note 19. Tt See Note 20. 


14 CREMONA AND MANTUA 


countries, helps one to understand the heroic and martial 
spirit which animates certain of his works. On the Hungarian 
battlefields, he certainly garnered a rich store of impressions, 
which served him well in the composition of the Combattimento 
and the warrior madrigals. 

Before setting out, Monteverdi had taken his wife to 
Cremona, and left her with his father, Baldassare Monteverdi. 
The financial situation of the young couple was not brilliant. 
The musician had a certain position to keep up at Mantua, 
and was obliged to have a carriage and horses, and men and 
women servants. His monthly salary was only twelve and 
a half Mantuan crowns, that of his wife, ninety-four Mantuan 
lire. During his absence his wife received only half of this 
meagre salary, and the business of supplying her needs 
devolved upon the old doctor. The composer himself had 
had considerable expenses to meet in the course of his travels, 
and came home heavily in debt. He had, moreover, suffered 
disappointment in another direction. The old choirmaster 
Giaches de Wert had died on May 6th, 1596, while Monte- 
verdi was camping in the Hungarian plains, and the Duke 
had not considered him for the vacancy, but had immediately 
given it to his countryman, Benedetto Pallavicini. All that 
Monteverdi gained from this painful expedition, therefore, 
was a series of mortifications, so that it was without enthusiasm 
that he received orders from the Duke, three years later, to 
accompany him to Flanders. 

This was no warlike expedition, but a pleasure trip to 
those wealthy cities from which so many excellent painters 
and musicians came to Mantua. Monteverdi once more 
confided his wife to the safe keeping of his father, and set 
out in the Duke’s train on June 7th, 1599.* 

Vincenzo and his large escort passed through the high 
Tyrolean passes to Trent, and thence to Innsbruck. At 


* See Note 21. 


EARLY YEARS rs 


Innsbruck he turned towards Lorraine by way of Basle, and 
arrived at Spa after a month’s hard travelling. ‘The baths 
of Spa were famous at the time, and people came from all 
over Europe to take the waters. Travelling musicians flocked 
round the springs, singing in all conceivable languages, or 
playing various instruments. As in our own time, life in 
certain fashionable watering-places was very gay, and music 
was one of the favourite amusements of the bathers. Accord- 
ing to the testimony of the traveller Bergeson, who passed 
through the town some years later, there were continual 
concerts, dances, ballets and serenades.* 

The Duke stayed a good month at Spa, then left for Liége, 
where he was the guest of the Prince Bishop Ernst of Bavaria, 
brother of Duke Guglielmo, and like him a great lover of 
music. On August 21st, Vincenzo reached Antwerp and 
hastened to visit the studios of well-known painters—in 
particular those of Rubens and Pourbus—as well as the 
shops of dealers in curiosities and objets d’art, while the 
Duke’s secretaries tried discreetly to negotiate the Crown 
jewels, so as to keep pace with the prodigalities of their 
sovereign. 

Only a few days were spent at Antwerp, for the Duke was 
expected at Brussels, where he was received with ceremony 
on August 26th. He remained there until September 21st, 
in the midst of continual fétes given in his honour. 

It was probably at Spa and at Brussels that Monteverdi 
came into contact with the new productions of the French 
school. Giulio Cesare Monteverdi, in the manifesto which 
prefaces the edition of the Scherzi Musicali, which we shall 
consider later, emphasises the importance of the Flemish 
journey in the development of his brother’s talent. Claudio 
Monteverdi was, he asserts, the first in Italy to practise 
‘the French manner of vocal writing in the new style which 


* See Note 22. 


16 CREMONA AND MANTUA. 


has been much admired during the last three or four years, 
whether as the accompaniment of the words of motets or 
madrigals, of songs or arias.” * 

This passage has always been falsely interpreted. It 
cannot be assumed that it relates to the French chanson as 
written by Jannequin or Orlando di Lasso, whose works 
were well known in Italy. ‘This was a narrative, descriptive 
and picturesque genre with which the Italians were quite 
familiar, and they had themselves created vast tone-pictures 
on this model. | 

What Monteverdi discovered in Flanders was that music 
‘“ mesurée a4 [ Antique”’ which the members of Baif’s Academy 
in Paris, Claude le Jeune, Thibault de Courville, Jacques 
Mauduit, Du Caurroy, vied with each other in composing. 
This new type of music was beginning to be known outside 
Parisian musical circles. ‘The Flemings were interested in 
it, and publishers included compositions by Le Jeune and Du 
Caurroy in their song-books.t 

Monteverdi was doubtless little interested in Baif’s classical 
researches, and in his French verse regulated by syllabic 
quantity, but he was certainly struck by the elegant rhythmic 
formule of certain chansonnettes mesurées and was inspired by 
them in his Scherzi Musicah. 

He probably also heard airs de cour and vaudevilles which 
attracted his attention. These compositions, in which 
musicians such as Claude Tessier or Pierre Cerveau excelled, 
were sometimes rendered by a solo-voice accompanied by the 
lute,t sometimes performed in the same way as madrigals 
or chansons by several voices and instruments. Generally a 
melodic phrase was given out by the soprano, and repeated 
by the other voices in chorus. These airs, which were 
written in syllabic counterpoint, must have delighted Monte- 


* See Note 23. Tt See Note 24. I See Note 25. 


EARLY YEARS 17 


verdi, in spite of the poverty of their harmony, by their 
rhythmic freedom, and by the beauty of their melodic form. 
It was a music all in half-tints, of touching simplicity, of 
supreme elegance. The influence of the airs de cour appears 
in certain madrigals a//a francese of Monteverdi’s last period, 
but I think it 1s possible to perceive it in certain accents, in 
certain turns of the melodic phrases of the Scherzi Musical 
and of the madrigals forming Books IV and V. 

The Duke of Mantua also appreciated French music. 
As early as 1596 he directed M. de la Clielle, one of his 
Parisian correspondents, to procure him new verses and 
arias.* Fie was in communication with Jacques Davy du 
Perron, Bishop of Evreux, a friend of Ronsard and of Baif, 
and a member of the Académie du Palais, and asked him to 
contribute verse of his own composition.t It is not astonish- 
ing, therefore, that Monteverdi should, in the course of his 
visit to Spa, have heard the most recent compositions of the 
French school, and should have been influenced by them, 
as his brother testifies. 

The very technique of French singing could not fail to 
attract his attention. It was full-voiced; its abrupt powerful 
rhythms seemed to him particularly appropriate to express 
certain effects of terror or anger. He made use of it both 
in his motets and in his secular work. 

During the same journey, Monteverdi also had his first 
experience of the ballet de cour which had been created in 
Paris in 1581 and was by way of subjugating Europe. The 

oet Ottavio Rinuccini was the first to introduce it into 
Italy, and Monteverdi subsequently composed one of the 
most perfect types of dramatic ballet. He was attracted by 
the rhythms resulting from the use of dotted notes, so much 
in favour among the French instrumentalists. 
* See Note 26. Tt See Note 27. 


Cc 


18 CREMONA AND MANTUA 


Monteverdi was endowed with an extraordinary faculty 
of assimilation. He profited by all he had heard on the 
French borders; his brother tells us that he turned it to 
marvellous use in his own works. It may seem paradoxical 
that Monteverdi should have been influenced by French 
music at the very moment of its decadence. It is compre- 
hensible that Palestrina should have followed the example of 
the illustrious Franco-Flemish polyphonists who were his 
masters, but it might reasonably appear odd that Monte- 
verdi should owe anything to men such as Du Caurroy, 
Mauduit, Tessier, who, in spite of their talent, are so vastly 
inferior to him. 

Such reasoning, however, implies a misapprehension of 
the true state of music at the end of the sixteenth century. 
The art of polyphony, having reached its full development 
in France and Flanders, had there exhausted itself at the time 
when in Italy it was in the blaze of glory which preceded its 
extinction. The problem of the renovation of musical forms 
had therefore presented itself to French musicians some 
twenty years before far-sighted minds had conceived it in 
Italy. Baif and the musicians of his Academy, as steeped — 
in classical antiquity as were later the members of Bardi’s 
Camerata, wished to subject French vocal music to the strict 
metrical laws of Greek versification. ‘They studied the effect 
of complicated rhythmic combinations, and attempted to 
apply classical metres to music. Assuming, for example, 
that the minim and the crotchet correspond to long and 
short syllables in poetry, it is perfectly simple to create dactyls, 
spondees, or anapzsts by the combination of a minim and 
two crochets, of two minims, or of two crotchets and a minim. 
From these experiments there resulted new and strange 
rhythms which were entirely independent of the current 
triple or quadruple time. 

They also conceived the idea, in common with the Florentine 


EARLY YEARS 19 


musicians, of reviving antique drama; but, instead of render- 
ing the whole drama musically, as the Florentines did, they 
composed it of declamatory scenes alternating with songs 
and dances performed by the chorus. ‘The dramatic ballet 
owes its origin to the performance of these classical fantasies 
at a court féte.* As far as music is concerned, all this 
ardent research resulted in curious monodies decorated with 
long expressive melismata, exquisite chansonettes, subtle and 
incisive of rhythm, airs de cour, and narrations de ballet 
in which the melody tends rather to comply with the sugges- 
tions of prosody than to fulfil the exigencies of lyrical 
declamation. | 

Monteverdi would doubtless have been unable to tolerate 
the domination of any single personality ; on the other hand, 
he was profoundly interested in these curious experiments. 
Though they-could, and did, lead to nothing, he was able to 
gather some useful material from them. 

Monteverdi was the more interested in Baif’s reform in 
view of the fact that it was carried out in a direction quite 
new to him. In common with Luca Marenzio, Gesualdo 
di Venosa, and Gagliano, he had sought the salvation of 
music in an enrichment of the language of harmony, in the 
reinforcement of its expressive power. Like them, he doubt- 
less hoped to recapture the spirit of classical antiquity by 
employing chromatic and enharmonic modes, the beauty of 
which had been praised by Nicola Vicentino, the theorist of 
the young school, and shown in practice by Ciprian de Rore 
and Orlando di Lasso. Claude Lejeune and Mauduit, on 
the other hand, did not attack the question of harmony. ‘Their 
counterpoint is very free of dissonances, even when by chance 
they write in chromatic style, and they concentrated entirely 
on the relations between poetry and music, which they desired 
to combine indissolubly. As we have pointed out, a new 


* See Note 28. 


20 CREMONA AND MANTUA 


form of lyrical monody had been the indirect result of these 
experiments in rhythm. 

Some ten years after the experiments of Baif and his friends, 
the poets, men of learning and artists, who met in Florence 
at the home of Giovanni Bardi, had conceived the idea of 
restoring solo-singing to its primitive splendour, as it had 
been known and practised by the ancients.* Their researches 
were carried out from a different standpoint from that of the 
Parisian academicians, who had had no regard to declamation 
and to tonic accent, but had been solely preoccupied with 
moulding music on the rhythms of verse; such men as 
Galilei, Emilio del Cavalieri, Peri, Caccini conceived the 
problem differently. Their object was to imitate the Greek 
“spoken song” with the accompaniment of the lyre or of 
its modern counterpart, the lute. 

From about 1585 to 1600, Florence was entirely pre- 
occupied with efforts to restore the antique me/opeia. But 
the Florentines, who were principally singers and amateurs, 
were chiefly concerned with melody and contour, while 
Gesualdo and Monteverdi, who were pure musicians, sought 
principally effects of harmony and colour. 

In 1590, Emilio del Cavalieri, in collaboration with Laura 
Guidiccioni the poetess, produced two little musical pastorals, 
Il Satiro and La Disperazio de Fileno, which caused pro- 
found perturbation in the artistic world of Florence. The 
object of the authors was to prove that a solo-voice could, 
without the assistance of harmony, express the most diverse 
emotions and could lead the spectator from sadness to gaiety, 
from tears to laughter, as the ancients had done, without the 
help of polyphony; they wished also to demonstrate a new 
type of solo-singing. Now, the principal part of a madrigal 
or a chanson had for long past been undertaken by a solo- 
voice. The point here was to maintain a clear enunciation 


* See Note 29. 


EARLY YEARS Oi 


while singing, a thing quite new at the time, save for certain 
experiments which had been made within the Florentine 
eroup, by Vincenzo Galilei, Jacopo Corsi, Giulio Caccini 
and Jacopo Peri. ‘The latter, whose reputation as a violist 
had spread throughout Italy, played a most important part 
in the reform which was being brought about. He set to 
music Dafne, a lyric drama by the poet Ottavio Rinuccini, 
which was successfully performed every year from 1594 
onwards at the house of a wealthy amateur, Jacopo Corsi, 
who had replaced Giovanni Bardi after the latter’s departure 
for Rome. 

Monteverdi, who between the years 1595 and 1600 was 
continually moving about Europe, can only have known of 
the experiments of the Camerata by hearsay, but they must 
have aroused _ his curiosity. 

The efforts of these poets, singers and amateurs to realize 
a purely literary ideal, even though it should involve the 
sacrifice of the rich possibilities of polyphonic music, could 
not have found much favour in his eyes. He was at this 
time occupied with the composition of the admirable madri- 
gals of Book IV, and, master as he was in the expression of 
the profoundest human emotions, the most delicate natural 
impressions, through the medium of five-part music, he must, 
in common with the majority of the great madrigalists of the 
time, and particularly Orazio Vecchi, have regarded with 
something like pity the dreary psalmody of the Florentine 
musicians. But he was too intelligent not to see the expres- 
sive effects that could be attained by lyrical declamation 
moulded upon the spoken word. 

It is highly probable that Monteverdi was present at the 
performance of Jacopo Peri’s Euridice with a libretto by 
Rinuccini on October 6th, 1600. We know that the Grand 
Duke of Tuscany had this piece ceremonially performed to 
celebrate the marriage of his daughter Maria de’ Medici with 


22 CREMONA AND MANTUA 


the King of France. Among the many princes who came 
from all parts of Italy to take part in the celebrations was 
the Duke of Mantua, brother-in-law of the new queen.* 
Whether Monteverdi was in his suite is not known, but it 
is highly probable. In any case, he must have soon been 
in possession of all the details he required about the per- 
formance, and, while there is no authorization for believing 
that he, like Marco Gagliano, at once made common cause 
with the Florentine musicians, yet a study of the madrigals 
of Book V, which were composed about this time, shows 
that he had been profoundly impressed with the stile recitativo, 
and had tried to put it to original use in his polyphonic work. 

Recitatives were certainly sung at Mantua during the 
ensuing years. The famous Francesco Rasi, who had given 
a superb performance in the Euridice, was a member of 
Vincenzo’s musical company and had been lent by him for 
the ceremony.+ It is clear that he continued to sing works 
composed in the new style. 

Monteverdi was at the time completely absorbed in the 
composition of the madrigals of Book V. The remarkable 
audacity of these works caused their performance to create 
something like a sensation in musical circles and provoked 
the fury of the purists and conservatives. Copies, more or 
less faithful, were circulated, and produced a kind of stupe- 
faction. It must be confessed that the liberties which the 
author had taken with traditional rules were of a nature to 
justify the excitement. 

In 1600 there appeared at Venice a work entitled L’ Artusi 
overo delle imperfettioni della Musica moderna. As the title 
shows, this work was a protest against modernism in music. 
Its author, Canon Artusi, a talented musician who had a 
considerable reputation as contrapuntist, posed as the champion 
of tradition, and lamented the degeneration of the art of 


* See Note 30. ft See Note 31. 


EARLY YEARS 23 


music. From his point of view, he was perfectly justified. 
Yet, all the same, he was in error, as are the critics of to-day 
who believe that music will perish because the rules on which 
it has been based hitherto are no longer respected. He 
complains quite justifiably that the new composers—he implies 
Gesualdo and Monteverdi—are solely preoccupied with 
delighting “sense’’ and not with satisfying ‘“‘ reason.” It 
is the eternal quarrel of the intellect and the senses. He 
deprecates the pride of artists who desire to call everything 
in question instead of following in the path of the masters— 
in short, he leaves unsaid none of the commonplaces uttered 
at all times and in all places by conservative critics. Monte- 
verdi is not mentioned in this book, but quotations from his 
madrigals show that he was the main object of Artusi’s 
attack. 

Three years later, in 1603, the theorist returned to the 
charge, and, while repeating his arguments, criticised with 
singular obtuseness the madrigals of Books IV and V which 
were being circulated in manuscript. 

Monteverdi, who had at first taken no notice of these 
attacks, makes a scornful allusion to them in the preface to 
Book V. He states that he will publish his reply under the 
title of Seconda prattica overo perfettione della Musica moderna 
—a parody of Artusi’s title—and that his object is to show 
publicly that the composition of his works is no mere question 
of hazard, but that there exists another system of harmony 
than that of which Zarlino codified the laws, and that in the 
matter of harmony and discord the modern composer takes 
account of other considerations than those which directed 
the practice of the old masters. ‘They were exclusively 
preoccupied with structure, with the adjustment of the 
different parts in accordance with the possibilities of music. 
Monteverdi might have said that they wrote ‘“‘ pure music.” 
The moderns seek above all to translate into living expression 


24 CREMONA AND MANTUA 


the emotions suggested by poetry. The former sacrificed 
the poetic text to harmony. The latter desire that harmony 
should be the attentive handmaid of verse. Monteverdi 
himself knows the rules of the old style, and if he infringes 
them, it is of set purpose. 


On November 26th, 1601, the Maestro di Cappella Bene- 
detto Pallavicini, who had been ailing for a month past, died 
of a malignant fever. Monteverdi immediately wrote to the 
Duke to solicit the appointment. Recalling Guaches de 
Wert, who had formerly combined the functions of Maestro 
di Camera and Maestro di Cappella, he prayed the Duke to 
grant him the same privilege.* His wish appears to have 
been granted without delay. A short time afterwards, 
Vincenzo Gonzaga, who wished to see him permanently 
established at the court of Mantua, granted him letters of 
naturalization dated April 1oth, 1602, by which the musician 
and his descendants were entitled to the privileges conferred 
by the title of citizen of Mantua.t 

Monteverdi was now in charge of the intractable company 
of singers and players. He had to supervise everything, 
conduct the rehearsals and the private performances in which 
Vincenzo took especial delight. He had also to compose 
madrigals at breakneck speed to the words of some favourite 
poet, or devise music for entrées de ballet of which a brief 
scenario was given him. Finally, he taught music to the 
children and young singers. ‘The charming Caterinuccia 
Martinelli was confided to his care, with instructions to 
make of her a perfect virtuosa. 

The salary Monteverdi received for all this work was small, 
and, forced to keep up a certain appearance at the court, 

* See Note 32. t See Note 33. 


EARLY YEARS 25 


with a wife, two children, and an expensive house, he was 
frequently in financial straits. He had to invoke his father’s 
help, and was involved in continual discussions with the 
treasurers, to obtain the regular payment even of what was 
due to him.* As long as he lived at Mantua his letters are 
full of complaints on this score, and they were certainly made 
with good cause, since in his subsequent life at Venice he 
makes no allusion to any difficulties of the kind with the 
Serene Republic. 

He lived in Mantua in a perpetual state of agitation and 
fatigue. Accustomed as he was to the bracing air of Cremona, 
he found the impure and fever-laden air of the lagoon exceed- 
ingly trying. The whims of the Duke meant crushing work 
for him. He worked slowly, and to be forced to carry out 
in a few days a sudden commission for madrigals or divertisse- 
ments was torture to him. On several occasions he fell ill 
from pure exhaustion, and was obliged to go to his father’s 
house at Cremona to rest. He was there in the month of 
December, 1604, in a state of profound depression, accom- 
panied by his wife, who had just borne him a second child.t 
Medicine, diet, rest—nothing had succeeded in improving his 
condition. ‘“‘I do most heartily pray your most Serene 
Highness,” he writes to the Duke, “ for the love of God, no 
longer to put so much work upon me; and to give me more 
time, for my great desire to serve you, and the excess of my 
fatigue will not fail to shorten my life; and if I live longer, 
I may yet be of service to Your Serene Highness, and of use 
to my poor children.” 

It is doubtful whether at this time he was thinking of 
leaving Mantua, yet his fame was spreading, and he would 
have had no difficulty in finding generous patrons; but it 
was not without hesitation that he could leave the service of 
a prince to whom he had pledged himself. The latter had 

* See Note 34. tT See Note 35. 


26 CREMONA AND MANTUA 


to give his consent to the termination of the engagement, 
otherwise the insult shown to the patron was certain to be 
avenged by death at the hands of some assassin. 

Monteverdi was in cordial relations with the court of 
Ferrara. Book IV of the Madrigals is dedicated to the 
academy of the Jutrepidi of that town. The musician also 
expresses his gratitude for marks of esteem received from 
them. He alludes in his letter of dedication to the desire he 
had in 1597 to have these madrigals performed from the 
manuscript before Duke Alfonso II. The death of this 
splendid prince prevented the realization of his project. 

It will be noticed that Monteverdi was not given to hasty 
publication. ‘This explains how Artusi could quote in 1600 
madrigals which were only printed in Venice five years later. 
Moreover, Monteverdi says himself that the position of 
Master of the Musicians was given him by the Duke of 
Mantua after the performance of Book V of the madrigals, 
which was only printed in 1605. 

Monteverdi rightly attached a special importance to this 
fifth Book. He wished to dedicate it to the Duke of Mantua 
as his most perfect work; and indeed it is a masterpiece. 
Polyphonic music here appears in unwonted forms of almost 
monstrous beauty. The art of the madrigal reaches its 
supreme expression. ‘The way is closed. Monteverdi was 
not long in issuing from the impasse in which a man like 
Orazio Vecchi obstinately remained. Making a complete 
volte-face, he laid hands on the aristocratic spectacle, invented 
and laboriously carried out by the Florentines, and turned 
this humanistic plaything into modern music-drama. 


Il 


THE FIVE BOOKS OF MADRIGALS AND THE 
SCHERZI 


Wirn the publication of Book V of the Madrigal a cinque 
voct in 1606, the first phase of Claudio Monteverdi’s musical 
activity comes to a close. Before considering the conditions 
in which he began the composition of the music-dramas, and 
the way in which he readopted the form of the madrigal whilst 
transforming it into a cantata for solo voice with thorough- 
bass, it is essential to consider rapidly the first books of 
madrigals. These pieces, with their perennial poetry and 
youthfulness, lend themselves particularly to literary com- 
mentary, but detailed examination of their structure and 
technique is necessary in order to appreciate the part played by 
Monteverdi in the evolution of musical expression. 

The madrigal originated in Italy about 1530. It was the 
product of the combination of the traditional motet of the 
Netherlands with the Italian frotto/a, but the product bore 
little resemblance to its constituent elements. The frotto/a, 
popular in spirit, written in homophonic and syllabic counter- 
point, represented at the beginning of the sixteenth century 
the reaction of the Italian masters against the excess of science 
and technical complication favoured by the Northern school. 
_ Toa certain degree, the frotto/a symbolized the revolt of melody 
which had been sacrificed to the cult of counterpoint. Famous 
French and Flemish musicians established in Italy had soon 
fallen under the spell of this rustic genre, of which the masters 
were Bartolommeo ‘Tromboncino and Marco Carra; they 
were glad to abandon the pedantic complications, the infinite 

=| 


28 CREMONA AND MANTUA 


subtleties rendered necessary by the composition of a mass 
for five voices on a single given theme, which they had to 
develop and vary by augmentation and diminution, by every 
imaginable process until it became absolutely unrecognizable. 
After the composition of a mass on the theme of L’ Homme 
Armé or Douce Mémoire which had already served as canto 
fermo to an incalculable number of different masses, these 
frottole must have come as a delightful relaxation. ‘The simple 
harmony, of set purpose rudimentary, and more instrumental 
than vocal in its nature, accompanied the brief rhythmic 


melody which was most frequently sung by a solo-voice, the 


other parts being played on the lute or harpsichord. 

Musicians such as Adrian Willaert, Arcadelt, and Verdelot, 
who felt the naive charm of the frottole, were, however, too 
practised in their art not to conceive more delicate combina- 
tions. In their search for a new genre which would allow 
them to throw off the strict obligations involved by the com- 
position of a mass or a motet, they discovered the madrigal, 
which was, at the time of the Renaissance, the principal 
channel of the evolution of musical technique, and an 
admirable medium of musical expression. 

From the beginning the madrigal was characterised by the 
extreme liberty of its structure. “The musician took verses of 
any metre he chose (generally a five- or six-lined stanza taken 
from a poem) and treated it either in homophonic counter- 
point or in a polyphonic style of curious workmanship. ‘The 
music of the madrigal is much less an end in itself than that 
of the masses or motets; the poetic text is its raison détre, 
and the music reflects all the suggestions of that text. The 
composer does not aim only at transposing into appropriate 
melody and harmony the prevailing atmosphere of the short 
poem; he endeavours to paraphrase minutely its ideas and its 
very language. Long festoons of thirds weave themselves about 
the “‘ chains of love”’ ; sighs are translated by pauses and breaks 


= - = . 


THE MADRIGALS AND THE SCHERZI 29 


in the melody ; the idea of duration, of immobility, is expressed 
by the holding of a single voice, the others carrying on their 
parts relentlessly. The voices rise on the words ‘‘ heaven,” 
‘“‘heights,’’ “‘ascension”’; they fall on the words “ earth,” 
“sea,” “‘abyss,” “hell.” ‘The notes scatter in silvery groups 
round the words “laughter,” “joyous,” “gay.” Finally 
Sarattyrdom, “*‘sadness,”’ “‘ pain,’’ “cruelty,’’ ‘tears ”’ are 
expressed by audacious discords and unexpected modulations. 
This preoccupation with literal translation, with the exact 
rendering of detail, is peculiar to the madrigal style, and the 
influence of the new genre on the old forms such as the 
motet, the chanson frangaise, the mass, can be seen in the use 
of “ madrigalisms ” which finally created a vast repertory of 
musical commonplaces on which composers drew unsparingly. 

The madrigal, as created by Adrian Willaert and Arcadelt, 
was written in the traditional modes, but, profiting by the 
_ liberty peculiar to the genre and desiring to enhance descrip- 
tive effects, certain musicians introduced the use of accidentals 
which produced modulations then unknown, and prepared the 
way for the tonalities of modern music and harmonic cadences. 
Monteverdi was destined to play a decisive part in this 
transformation of musical language. 

Monteverdi regarded Ciprian de Rore as his master. ‘This 
musician was, with Nicola Vicentino, the first to use the 
chromatic style in his madrigals about 1550. ‘These experi- 
ments had created a profound impression. At a time when 
minds were permeated with the memory of ancient music, 
the innovators justified their experiments by claiming to 
restore the chromatic and enharmonic modes described in 
Greek and Latin treatises which had recently been discovered. 
Zarlino, the champion of tradition, was opposed by Vicentino, 
whose treatise, L’ Antica Musica ridotta alla moderna pratica 
(1555), was the breviary of the musicians of the vanguard. 
Orlando di Lasso practised the new style for some time, and 


30 CREMONA AND MANTUA 


composed some fine chromatic madrigals, but he did not 
continue in this direction, and seems later to have regarded 
with distaste the works of his youth. 

The chromatic style as practised by musicians such as 
Ciprian de Rore and Ingegneri bears little resemblance to the 
style now called by that name. Its essential characteristic 
consisted in the use of accidentals, which were foreign to 
the mode in which the madrigal was sung. They did not, 
properly speaking, involve modulation. _Monteverdi’s great 
achievement was to transform the somewhat incoherent use 
of these accidentals into a clear method of transition from one 
key into another. 

The disciples of Ciprian de Rore were grateful to him for 
having thus become the pioneer of chromatic music, and 
hailed him as the father of modern musical language. They 
spoke much of the harmonic boldness of the celebrated 
madrigal Calami sonum ferentes, and hailed his reaction against 
the excessive complications of polyphonic writing. Ciprian, 
indeed, had concentrated upon preventing the melodic theme 
from being lost in the inextricable interweaving of the parts. 
In his music, as in that of Orlando di Lasso, a definite melody 
is clearly heard through the polyphony. It can easily be 
isolated and sung by a solo voice, the other parts being played 
as an instrumental accompaniment. ‘The idea of revealing 
the melodic line and of allowing the words to be heard was 
quite new. Adrian Willaert, heir of the Franco-Flemish 
tradition, had never considered the point, and like his masters 
had aimed at “‘the perfection of harmony,” to use Monte- 
verdi’s own words. ‘This was the ideal of a large number of 
musicians, and Palestrina himself was on the side of tradition 
rather than on that of the reformers. On the other hand, 
round Ciprian de Rore rallied themselves the majority of the 
Venetian and Neapolitan madrigalists who, about the time of 
the publication of Monteverdi's first book, were seeking to 


THE MADRIGALS AND THE SCHERZI 31 


make music more melodious and more expressive without, 
however, sacrificing the rich resources of polyphony. ‘The 
most brilliant of these musicians were Luca Marenzio, 
Giovanni Gabrieli, Luzzascho Luzzaschi, Ingegneri, and Don 
Gesualdo, Prince of Venosa. 

Ingegneri who, as we have seen, was Monteverdi’s master 
at Cremona, was, like Ciprian de Rore, striving towards an 
ideal of melodic beauty and simplicity. Charles Bordes (in 
his analysis of the Responses of Ingegneri which he attri- 
butes to Palestrina) has brought out very clearly the novelty 
of the style of these works.* Everything, he notes, is sub- 
servient to declamation. The interweaving of contrapuntal 
patterns is replaced by vertical harmonies, clear chords which 
permit the words of the dying Christ to be heard by the whole 
congregation. The master’s regard for declamation is such 
that he returns to a kind of free diaphony, moulded upon 
the accents of the spoken word. Monteverdi subsequently 
_ expressed his approval of his master’s attention to declamation 
in singing. Although less bold than Ciprian de Rore, 
Ingegneri was also one of the first to adopt the chromatic 
style which Palestrina and his rivals had neglected. We shall 
see the part which chromatic dissonances were to play in the 
madrigals of Monteverdi. Yet Ingegneri was by no means 
arevolutionary. All his works, masses, motets and madrigals, 
betray a great preoccupation with purity of style. 

Monteverdi, in his youth at least, does not seem to have 
come under the influence of Giovanni Gabrielli, his con- 
temporary. He makes no reference to him in the preface of 
_ the Scherzi Musica. | The similarities of style to be observed 
in these works can very well be explained by a common cult 
for Ciprian de Rore and his direct disciples. Monteverdi 
was certainly much struck by the audacities of Don Gesualdo, 
who, however, only accumulated dissonances with the avowed 

* See Note 36. 


A2 CREMONA AND MANTUA 


intention of causing astonishment (far stupire). ‘This is the 
epoch in which extravagance (stravaganza) is regarded as the 
finest quality in drama. The desire to leave the beaten 
track, to discover something new, was manifesting itself 
powerfully then as now. It is possible that Gesualdo con- 
tributed to eliminating from Monteverdi’s mind the last 
trace of the respect in which he had at first held the rules of his 
art, but he served no other purpose. ‘There is to be perceived 
in Gesualdo no sense of modern tonality. His innovations are 
an end in themselves; they lead to nothing. 

Luca Marenzio, on the other hand, being some ten years 
Monteverdi’s senior, may very well have pointed out to him 
the way he was to take. ‘This marvellous musician shows a 
very modern sense of harmonic modulation. ‘The style of 
his madrigals is very similar to that of Monteverdi's first 
works, though it is more precious, less haphazard. The 
preoccupation with the expression of personal emotion is 
clearly to be seen, and one can even say that the madrigals 
of Luca Marenzio are already animated by that dramatic 
sense which is the essential characteristic of the madrigals 
of Monteverdi. 

We can say nothing of Monteverdi’s earliest work, pub- 
lished in 1583, for only an uninteresting fragment has survived. 
The Canzonette a tre voci published the following year are of the 
purest classical type. ‘They are divided into two unequal 
sections, each of which is twice repeated. ‘The melody 1s 
clearly defined, the rhythm lively and graceful. The last one 
in the book is delightful. ‘The first phrase is as follows : 


EXAMPLE I 





Hor ca-re can zo - net-te Si-cu - - ramente an-dre- te 


THE MADRIGALS AND THE SCHERZI 33 


The affected naiveté of the verse is not without charm. 
“Now, dear songs, you will go peacefully, singing joyously, 
kissing in gratitude the hands of him who shall listen to 
you.” 

Monteverdi published these delicious songs at the age of 
seventeen. His work long bore traces of the fascination he 
had felt as a young man for this popular form, in which 
extreme liberty of composition was general. The most 
severe contrapuntists permitted fifths and octaves in writing 
villanelle and canzonette for three voices, and obtained new 
effects by the violation of scholastic rules. Monteverdi took 
advantage of these liberties in writing his madrigals. 

In 1587, Gardano of Venice published the first book of 
madrigals for five voices, a work destined to make Monte- 
verdi celebrated throughout Europe. On the title-page, as 
on those of the two earlier collections, the author calls himself 
the “disciple of Marc Antonio Ingegneri,”’ but a glance at 
these compositions is enough to show all that divides the 
disciple from the master. Ingegneri1 had always shown 
profound respect for the rules of his art. Extremely liberal 
in his ideas, he had not concealed his sympathy with the new 
tendencies, but had himself succeeded in combining a varied 
and expressive style with great correctness. Monteverdi felt 
none of these scruples. Even in his earliest compositions he 
cast aside all scholastic prejudice. Ingegneri’s music was like 
some carefully tended garden; under Monteverdi’s rule, 
weeds invaded the flower-beds and wild flowers raised their 
perfumed blooms insolently above the complicated designs of 
the box-wood. 

The concision of style and the frequent use of a refrain 
in the madrigals of the first book recall the style of the can- 
zonette, but the harmony is much richer and more elaborate. 
The use of the chromatic style is more timid than in Gesualdo’s 


or even in Luca Marenzio’s work; the form recalls rather 
D 


34. CREMONA AND MANTUA 


that of Ciprian de Rore, who, however, never went as far as 
Monteverdi in the multiplication of dissonances. They arise 
most frequently from a very peculiar use of retardation in the 
various parts and of their simultaneous or deferred resolution.* 


EXAMPLE 2 





Monteverdi also makes frequent use of augmented fifths, 
which produce effects of voluptuousness and melancholy.T 


EXAMPLE 3 






Thus Monteverdi’s technique has already a personal colour 
in these melodies which proceed by large intervals, with 
fearless leaps of ninths or elevenths, in his modern sense of 
tonality, and in his contempt for the rules prohibiting the use 
of consecutive fifths and octaves, and false relations. On the 
contrary, he gets effects of extraordinarily expressive power 
from the violation of these rules. 

But what is more striking in this first collection than any 
technical detail is the bubbling life, the youthful vigour which 
permeates them, the intelligent paraphrase of the text by the 
music, which discreetly emphasizes all the important details 
yet preserves a marvellous coherence. ‘There is in this book 
no trace as yet of the dramatic feeling which inspires the 
subsequent collections. The three last madrigals, which form 
a trilogy, 4rdo si, ma non amo; Ardi o gela; Arsi e alsi, would 
have lent themselves to dramatic treatment; they are, in point 

* See Note 37. Tt See Note 38. 


THE MADRIGALS AND THE SCHERZI 35 


of fact, the weakest in the book, and Monteverdi maintains 
throughout the lyric style. 

The second book, published at Venice in the following year 
(1590), shows considerable progress on the first. The twenty- 
one madrigals it contains are perceptibly more developed, and 
have lost that resemblance to the chansonnette which character- 
ized such pieces as Se pur non mi consenti, Filli cara et amata, 
Fu mia la pastorella, ‘There is indeed, only one piece, S’ andasse 
Amor a caccia, which, in its swift grace, recalls the manner of 
Jannequin and Lasso. ‘The whole collection is astonishing in 
its variety. By the side of madrigals conceived along tradi- 
tional lines such as Donna nel mio ritorno, there are others 
perfectly original in style such as the delightful Now son in 
gueste rive with its bold modulation from C to E major and 
its consecutive descending fifths, 


EXAMPLE 4 





iii ee ee Gar 6 eS eS 


or such as Nox si levava Lf alba, which ends with the repetition 
of the original melody adapted to different words, and thus 
anticipates the aria da capo. Certain of the madrigals are 
markedly polyphonic in form; others, on the contrary, are 
written in homophonic style, with vertical harmonies. We 
feel that the composer is no slave to theory, but a musician 
guided by inspiration or fantasy, reserving to himself the 
right of observing or violating rules according to his desire and 
the object he aims at. For him the end justifies the means, 
and the essential is to suggest powerfully to the hearer feelings 
and impressions. 

Like all the contemporary madrigalists, even like Bach and 


; 


36 CREMONA AND MANTUA 


Rameau, who came a century later, Monteverdi interprets 
the metaphors of the text by appropriate melodic figures. 
The rising sun which gilds the mountain-tops inspires him 


thus : 
EXAMPLE 5 





The doli legami are translated by chains of thirds, and the 
line Facendo mille scherzi e milli giri is sung to a phrase in 
which a rapid succession of notes brings to the mind the swift 
movements expressed in the text. This literal interpretation 
of ideas and words seems puerile to us to-day, but it was the 
idiom of the epoch, and, without wishing to attach particular 
importance to Monteverdi’s use of the current vocabulary, it 
would be idle to attack him on that ground. Such literal 
interpretations, moreover, did not prevent Monteverdi from 
trying to render the spirit and the atmosphere of the poem. 
The finest madrigal in the book, Ecco mormorar Ponde, is 
characteristic from this point of view. It is permeated with 
a pastoral atmosphere of delicious coolness. The brook is 
babbling, birds are twittering, the air is exquisitely clear. This 
is no rough objective description ; it is the delicate suggestion 
ofamood. Scenes similar in inspiration are to be found later 
in the operas of Cavalli and Lulli, but there the orchestra plays 
the part here confided to the voices. In this madrigal, the 
supple thirds unrolling above the voices recall those phrases 
for muted strings which, in Lulli’s work, enchant the sleeping 
hero on the bank of the murmuring brook. 


EXAMPLE 6 










a 2 Ger es See Re BAT ee BH 
4 : 5 







THE MADRIGALS AND THE SCHERZI 37 


And how profound is the impression of mystery, of awaken- 
ing nature, which is given by the opening of this madrigal, 
when tenors and basses murmur Ecco mormorar I’ onde while the 
other voices repeat the phrase in echo ! 


EXAMPLE 7 





Ec-co mor-morar l'on - de 


In the admirable’ Non m’é grave il morire the tragic 
chords which support the melodic phrase Lagrimar per pieta 
already anticipate the dramatic style of the Orfeo. 


The third book, published in 1592, contributed consider- 
ably to Monteverdi’s reputation, and eight reprints are known 
to have been made between 1592 and 1622. As far as har- 
mony is concerned, there is nothing specially new in the book, 
and historians who have noted as an innovation the use of 
suspensions in the beautiful madrigal Stracctami il core show 
that they have not taken the trouble to read his two first books. 
It is true that Monteverdi has accumulated in this madrigal, 
which is in very free fugal style, all possible harmonic innova- 
tions, so that Padre Martini was able to quote it as a peculiarly 
typical example of his madrigal writing. 

In this madrigal Fétis has noted with dismay “ the double 
dissonances produced by the suspension of the ninth and 
fourth, of the ninth, seventh and fourth, and of the fourth 
and sixth resolved on the fifth” at the words Non pud morir 
d’ Amor. 


38 CREMONA AND MANTUA 


EXAMPLE 8 





non puo mo - fir d’A - - mor al - - ma fe-de - - le 


In this book there are as yet no chords of the seventh or 
ninth taken without preparation, and yet as Fétis, the first to 
throw light on Monteverdi’s part in the modal revolution, has 
pointed out, the characteristic quality of modern tonality 
is already defined in it by the frequent use of the harmonic 
relation of the fourth and seventh, which thus acts as leading 
note, finding its resolution on the tonic. ‘“* Now it is pre- 
cisely this relation of the fourth degree and the leading-note, 
i.e. of these cadences which distinguishes modern tonality from 
plainsong, in which no other resolutions were necessary than 
those of the optional dissonances produced by suspension.” 

While the harmonic structure of the third book differs little 
from that of the preceding collection, the same is not true of 
the way in which the parts are disposed. Progressions by 
consecutive thirds and sixths, which were the exception, are 
frequent. The author tends to lay increasing emphasis on 
one part—soprano or alto—as though it had been written for 
a solo voice, the others accompanying it in the same way as 
instruments. ‘This distribution is very remarkable in the 
two magnificent madrigals O Primavera, giovenih de P anno and 
Perfidissimo volto, which are animated ue a concentrated and 
profound passion. 

There is obvious attention to clarity of enunciation. Whilst 
the Plainte d’Armide abandonnée presents characteristics of 
liturgical psalmody rather than of dramatic declamation, 
recalling thereby Orlando di Lasso’s Plainte de Didon, yet in 


THE MADRIGALS AND THE SCHERZI 39 


several madrigals there are melodic phrases almost recitative 
in character. This would lead one to suppose that, whilst 
following a different direction, Monteverdi was nevertheless 
in close touch with the experiments of the Camerata Bardi. 


EXAMPLE 9 





f 
“a 
* Vatte — nepurcru — del conquel-la pa’ - ce che . lascia’ me 


We are obliged to lay special emphasis upon the technique 
of Monteverdi’s madrigals, but it must be noticed that he 
never stands out as a stylist. He never appears to have 
attempted, as Gesualdo did, to astonish his hearers with inven- 
tions, with freaks in the matter of harmony. His only object 
is to express as intensely as possible the passions which agitate 
the human soul. From this time onwards he is a master in the 
art of interpreting in music the most complex, the most 
varied emotions. 


The fourth book appeared in March 1603, but the madrigals 
which it contains had been composed some time before, since 
several of them were criticized by Artusi in 1600. Artusi’s 
attack has given rise to some astonishment. It has been 
remarked that there are to be found in the work of Luca 
Marenzio, whose authority he invokes, the same bold dis- 
sonances resulting from retardations, the same chromatic 
passages, the same modulations. That is quite true, but what 
revolted Artusi was doubtless not so much the violation of 
traditional rules—false relations, augmented fifths, and ninths 
—as the absolute novelty of Monteverdi’s very conception of 
the madrigal. Up to that time the genre had been essentially 
vocal in character. The most revolutionary madrigals of 


40 CREMONA AND MANTUA 


Gesualdo or Marenzio are obviously written for voices. 
Monteverdi, on the contrary, from the fourth book onwards, 
seems to have composed his madrigals for instrumental 
performance. It must be confessed that it would be extremely 
dificult to sing certain madrigals of Book IV. It is no easy 
matter to find three voices capable of singing in perfect tune 
passages such as the following, which are chosen from a host 
of similar passages: 


EXAMPLE I0 





Madrigals such as Sfogava con Je stelle, or A un giro sol, look 
far more like fantasies for viols (such as Frescobaldi might 
have written) than madrigals intended to be sung by human 
voices. Indeed, in the first, there is a strange effect of 
vocalization in which the voices are treated as instruments. 
The lilt of the dotted notes recalls the French airs de ballet 
which Monteverdi had heard in the course of his journey in 


Flanders. 


EXAMPLE II 





In the second, vocal passages, in broad undulations in thirds, 
represent the waves of the sea exactly in the same way as 
operatic composers, half a century later, did in writing for the 
orchestra. The form of the madrigal can be seen breaking 


got, MADRIGALS AND THE SCHERZI 41 


up in all directions. It already contains the orchestra, anti- 
cipates the cantata for solo-voice, and foreshadows the great 
dramatic narrations of the Opera. We, who know the result 
of these intuitions of genius, cannot sufficiently admire such 
prophetic compositions, but we can understand the stupe- 
faction of Monteverdi’s contemporaries. ‘These madrigals 
are magnificent works, but they are simply not madrigals. 

It would be idle to examine individually the twenty mad- 
rigals of Book IV, in view of the profound technical analysis 
made by Dr. Leichtentritt. ‘The impression of splendid 
barbarity given by the first books is reinforced. Emotions 
are expressed with vehement power, instincts run wild. 
Nothing could be stranger than the contrast between the 
insipid text, in which the dying flames, the sweet bonds of 
Love, are celebrated in choice language, and the brutality of 
the musical expression. In Si ch’ io vorrei morire, the poetic 
text expresses an impudent gallantry, the music is permeated 
with a sensuous ecstasy which would be disconcerting if one 
did not have in mind the atmosphere of voluptuous passion in 
which Monteverdi lived at the court of Mantua. 


The fifth book of the madrigals (1605) is one of the first 
works of the kind published with the addition of a basso 
continuo, optional in the case of the first thirteen, obligatory in 
the last six. [Thus we can see how the new genre was defi- 
nitely developing in the direction of the new forms, the aria 
and cantata. | 

From the harmonic point of view, this book contains an 
innovation which was destined to revolutionize music. For 
‘the first time, chords of the seventh and the ninth are taken 
without preparation and determine a tonal cadence. We can 
feel Monteverdi’s delight in his discovery, for he multiplies 
such cadences. 


42 CREMONA AND MANTUA 


EXAMPLE 12 





‘“In taking without preparation the dominant seventh 
and ninth, the sritone, the diminished fifth and the minor 
sixth,” observes Fétis, ‘“‘ Monteverdi completes the trans- 
formation of tonality and not only gives music expressive and 
dramatic power, but creates a new system of harmony.” ‘This 
new use of the seventh caused considerable surprise to his 
contemporaries. ‘“‘ Our ancient masters,’ writes Artusi, 
“never taught that sevenths could be employed so syste- 
matically and without preparation.” It is doubtful whether 
Monteverdi realized the significance of his discoveries, for his 
prefaces and letters contain no allusion to his very original 
conception of harmony. He seems to have been directed by 
pure intuition in this renovation of musical language. 

Throughout this book, Monteverdi appears obsessed with 
the question of dramatic style. We noticed in Book III 
some examples of lyric declamation. Recitative is fre- 
quently to be found in Book IV; it dominates the whole of 
Book V. It is a curious situation. Monteverdi refuses to 
reject deliberately an antiquated genre by following the 
example of such men as Emilio del Cavalieri, Peri, Caccini, 


THE MADRIGALS AND THE SCHERZI 43 


Sigismondo d’India in composing arias for a solo-voice 
with asso continuo, yet profits by their creations in the style 
of the Florentine monody when writing madrigals for five 
Voices. 

Monteverdi was profoundly interested in the experiments 
of the Camerata, but he was too essentially a musician to 
resign himself to an impoverishment of music. The Floren- 
tines meant to clear the ground entirely before creating their 
new style. On the pretext that polyphonic writing prevented 
the poetic text from being distinctly heard, and thus annihi- 
lated. poetry, they wished to replace an art of incomparable 
richness by a new art, pure in line certainly, but despoiled of 
everything which had once made the beauty of music. Monte- 
verdi, with a Venetian passion for colour, could not adapt 
himself to the linear style of the Florentines. In this he was 
certainly of the same opinion as Orazio Vecchi, Banchier1 
and a host of other eminent composers of the time. Moreover, 
the use he makes of the s#i/e recitativo in his madrigals for five 
voices must have seemed like sacrilege to the Florentine 
purists who were preaching a return to ancient simplicity 
with the faith of sectarian iconoclasts. In short, he remained 
faithful to the ideas of his master Ingegneri as regards the 
necessity of preserving the intelligibility of the words, but took 
advantage in setting them to music of the style, intermediary 
between speaking and singing, which was being practised by 
the innovators. 

The madrigal O Mirti//o was certainly conceived by Monte- 
verdi in view of execution by a solo-voice. This becomes 
obvious if the madrigal is arranged as shown in Example 13, 
no change being made in the motion of the parts. 

One obtains thus an aria for solo-voice such as those which 
Caccini and Sigismondo d’India were then popularizing, in 
which the Florentine recitative softens, becomes melodious 
and tuneful. 


44 CREMONA AND MANTUA 


EXAMPLE 13 








BE 
ESAS LAT FS PRET DEES) a ee ee ge ee iia 
a .. EES S e * A RAE 2" 











re 
7 
a 
— 

—el | 
X_5 




















LT AES CTE DE TE I CISA SORE NEE fy WSR ee 


quiden - - trocomestailcor di ques - -- ta 








Ngta: 7 
2 oy ob eal 6 F Boy ee 
a af? —?- 7 2 oe ee ee eee 
2 wre. ee ee 
SIRE ESOS EE A (hed HES ERSUEARARNROS DESDE RE Gi he Fo GS ee 











Monteverdi’s dramatic style, which later made the Orfeo, 
can be perceived throughout this collection. Here and there 
can be found those passionate exclamations, those melodic 
intervals of the diminished seventh which he uses so frequently 
in his opera. ‘The drama is obviously becoming an obsession 
with him. ‘The general impression of the first four books of 
madrigals is distinctly lyrical, the fifth, on the contrary, is 
entirely dramatic. ‘The madrigals Ecco Silvio, Ma se con la 
pietd, Dorinda, Ecco pieghando le ginocchie a terra, Ferrir quel 
petto Silvio are taken from Guarini’s Pastor Fido and are con- 
nected so as to form a dramatic action to madrigalesque music. 
There was nothing particularly daring about this attempt. 
The general preoccupation with drama was so powerful at 
that time that there was a large number of musicians, hostile 
to the Florentine reform, who treated scenes from pastorals 
and comedies in polyphonic style. In 1600 a pastoral set to 


THE MADRIGALS AND THE SCHERZI 45 


music in four parts by Guasparre Torelli had been published — 
at Venice under the title J Fidi Amanti,* and the inveterate 
fidelity to this system, maintained by Orazio Vecchi and his 
disciple Adriano Banchieri, long after the triumph of the 
monody was assured, is well known.t Indeed, why Monte- 
verdi continued to write in the madrigal style remains some- 
what obscure. Narrations and dialogues are all important, 
the other parts being reduced to the rdle of accompaniment. 
Why, therefore, did he not simply write solos with orchestral 
accompaniment ? ‘The scene in which Dorinda throws herself 
at Silvio’s feet and implores him to strike her with the arrow 
she offers him (No. 7) belongs to drama, not to the madrigal. 
The very fact that he wrote a thorough-bass part intended for 
instrumental accompaniment proves sufficiently that Monte- 
verdi was no longer at his ease in the madrigal a cappella. 
The madrigal Ahi come un vago sol is the prototype of those 
two-part cantatas with thorough-bass which were to be so 
frequent in seventeenth-century music. The two tenor 
voices sing accompanied by the dasso continuo, and the soprano 
voices intervene only at infrequent intervals to execute melodic 
figures which could very well be played by the violins. The 
principal voices are treated as solos, as later in the operas and 
cantatas. 

The last piece of the collection forms a contrast with those 
which precede it. It is a vast composition in nine parts, 
written in the purest Venetian style as popularized by Giovanni 
Gabrieli. ‘The voices are divided into two choruses supported 
_by the bass. ‘These choruses answer each other in canonical 
imitations and are united in a powerful finale. The style and 
the broad well-marked rhythm of the madrigal Quest vaghi 
concenti reappear in the choruses which open and conclude the 
operas of the Roman school. 

In the fifth book of the madrigals, taking it all in all, music 

* See Note 39. t See Note 4o. 


46 CREMONA AND MANTUA 


reaches its highest levels, but I do not think that one can 
assume, as has often been assumed, that the genre here finds 
its perfect and definite expression. The true models of the 
madrigal style are to be found rather in the work of Luca 
Marenzio. Monteverdi never considered the madrigal as 
an end in itself, but as a means of reaching a new ideal, which 
he but dimly perceived, and which defined itself more and 
more clearly, namely, dramatic expression. But the madrigal, 
which is essentially a lyric form, could not resist such efforts. 
In the hands of the maestro of Cremona, it broke up; but 
from its ruins were created new musical forms, arias, duos, 
cantatas, which Monteverdi later incorporated in the lyrical 
drama. 


It was about 1660 that Monteverdi composed the Scherzi 
Musical, a work destined to contribute more than any other to 
his popularity, at least during his lifetime. According to his 
brother, who prefaced the Venetian edition of this collection, 
published in 1607, with an interesting manifesto, he made use 
in it of that canto alla francese which he had heard in Flanders 
and which was destined to become popular throughout Italy. 
The term is vague. Whilst it is quite true that the name was 
generally applied to a certain manner of singing with the full 
voice, powerful and abrupt, and to a certain rhythmic process 
consisting essentially, as M. André Pirro * observes, of a binary 
grouping of the notes in the cadences, yet it is also clear that 
Monteverdi brought from his Flemish voyage, with other 
foreign habits, a truly original manner of composition peculiar 
to the Parisian school. If, indeed, one takes the pains to 
score the Scherzi Musica without dividing the melody into 
bars, placing the verses one below the other, it will be recog- 
nized that these songs were composed on metric plans in the 


* See Note 41. 


THE MADRIGALS AND THE SCHERZI 47 


same way as the chansonnettes of Baif set to music by Claude 
Le Jeune, Du Caurroy or Mauduit. 

Monteverdi, who was most profoundly influenced by 
humanistic ideas, and who was at the time seeking in Plato and 
the Greek philosophers a solution to the problems which he 
could not solve with the sole assistance of the theorists of 
musical art, could not fail to be interested in the French re- 
searches. Plato had taught him that rhythm, together with 
melody, was the very essence of music. Up to that time he 
had concentrated his efforts principally upon melody, and 
upon harmony considered as a powerful means of expression. 
He had somewhat neglected rhythm, the marvellous effects 
of which had been praised by the ancients. In Flanders, he 
found himself suddenly in the presence of artists who, while 
they were no less in love with antiquity than himself, were 
attempting to combine closely poetry, melody and rhythm, so 
that, from the strictly musical point of view, there was much 
to interest him permanently in these perfectly new rhythmical 
formule, so arresting and original, which arose from the 
application of verse-metres to music. 


EXAMPLE I3A 









C’estun a-mant, ouvrez la por - - te, . Il est plein d’amour et de foy 


que fai-tes-vous, estes vous mor - te? Non vous ne l’es = tes que pour moy. 


It was as musician much more than as poet that he appreci- 
ated this French musique mesurée. He did not attempt to 
compose airs to Italian poetry written in antique metres, 


48 CREMONA AND MANTUA 


although a good deal of it existed. In common with a large 
number of French musicians,* he preferred to take rhymed 
stanzas and to deduce from the general rhythm of the verse a 
metrical formula to which he adapted the melody. 

Monteverdi, who had always affirmed his predilection for 
symmetrical repetitions, for the strict development of sequences, 
for the basso ostinato, felt a lively pleasure in composing instru- 
mental chansons and ritorne/li on constantly recurring rhythmic 
formule of great simplicity. Sometimes, however, he 
delighted in more subtle metrical combinations, but it is rare for 
him to compose the music of each verse according to a different 
metrical plan, as Claude Le Jeune or Mauduit did. With the 
exception of a single piece, La Violetta, which is a canzonetta 
of classical form, all the three-part Scherzi are constructed on 
preconceived rhythmic plans, and Monteverdi scarcely ever 
allows himself any liberties with the rhythm. 

It would be vain to seek his models elsewhere than in 
France. On the contrary, one has but to glance at the airs 
mesurés of Mauduit, of Caurroy, Le Jeune, Courville and their 
companions to recognize the affinity.t 


SS 


EXAMPLE 14 





Ail-le con-tem-plant et la grace et les traits Fa che ca-da la ru-gia-da 


Qu’il trou-ve por-trais _ Dis-til-la-ta di ru-bi-no 


French influence is also evident in the harmonic structure 


* See Note 42. { See Note 43. 


Peseta DRIGALS AND THE SCHERZI 49 


of these three-part songs: the counterpoint is syllabic and 
dissonances rarely appear. There is not a shadow of an imita- 
tion. Monteverdi rejects the dissonances, the false relations, 
the chromatics, from which he obtained such powerful effects 
in his other works, particularly in his madrigals. He 
seems principally concerned with rhythmic precision and 
grace. 

It must, however, be recognized that the melodic inspiration 
of these charming pieces owes nothing to France. Their 
form is entirely Italian. 

As in the French airs de cour, the form of the Scherzi is 
strophic, the same melody serving for several stanzas. Each 
repetition is preceded by an instrumental ritorne/lo in three 
parts, about equal in length to the chanson which it precedes. 
It is constructed on the melodic theme of the Scherzo, and 
follows, although freely, a preconceived rhythmic scheme. 
Monteverdi shows here his love of the sequence which he uses 
in a kind of thematic development. The bass marks the 
rhythm to which the other parts conform more freely. Occa- 
sionally the bass repeats the same figure several times in succes- 
sion, and only indulges in some liberties towards the end. A 
note printed as an introduction to the work states that each 
ritornello was to be played twice before the entry of the voices, 
and once between each verse by two violins, and a chitarrone 
or harpsichord. ‘The first stanza was to be sung in three 
parts to the accompaniment of violins which doubled the 
voices. ‘The second.stanza could be sung by a solo voice, 
and the last stanza was to be sung, like the first, in three 
parts. 

The collection of the Scherzi Musicaii concludes with a 
Balletto, a suite of songs in dance-rhythms preceded by an 
instrumental introduction. It is an interesting example of 
the Suite, and there seems to be little doubt that the author 


was inspired in this composition by the suites of dances of 
E 


50 CREMONA AND MANTUA 
varied rhythms which composed the French ballet. The 


instrumental piece which opens the divertissement is entitled 
Entrata. It is the classical entrée of the French ballet, and is 
followed by danced chansons which differ in key and in rhythm. 
There are to be seen successively a Pavane, a Galliarde, a 
Coranto, a Volte a 3, Allemande, and a Gigue a 3. But the 
question arises as to whether these dances are actually 
Monteverdi’s own work, or that of his brother, Giulio Cesare. 
Their rather meagre structure tends to confirm the latter 
assumption. 

It appears that, in spite of the great success of the Scheres 
Musical, proved by the number of published editions, Monte- 
verdi’s intentions remained obscure for a large number of his 
auditors, who were disconcerted by these pieces sans mesure 
réglée, which were sung according to syllabic quantity in the 
French manner. ‘The pedant Artusi returned to the charge, 
and under the pseudonym of Antonio Braccino da Todi 
published at Venice in 1608 a pamphlet entitled Discorso 
secondo musicale * which was intended to confound his adversary. 
‘What is there to say of these Scherzi Musical,” he cries, 
‘ save that their author knows nothing about time nor about 
the signs he employs to indicate it? The three songs, O 
Rosetta, Damigella and Clori Amorosa, in particular, have, on 
paper, the same time, the same signature, but the melodies obey 
different rhythms. If the time noted for the two first is 
correct, then it is false for the third. Whatever Monte- 
verdi may do, or claim to do, he has proved that he knows 
nothing of musical proportion.’’ Further on, he notes that 
Monteverdi, having used the “C” time-signature, has not 
hesitated to put three minims in a bar. If Artusi had con- 
sulted the musique mesurée of the French masters, he would 
have seen that they also used time-signatures to indicate 
nothing more than the prevailing rhythm of the piece. For 


* See Note 44. 


THE MADRIGALS AND THE SCHERZI 51 


want of this knowledge, Artusi was astounded by these 
successions of crotchets and quavers which cannot be reduced 
to simple time, save by constant alteration of the time-signa- 
ture, and wondered by what aberration people could hail as a 


man of genius a musician who was incapable of distinguishing 
triple from quadruple time. 





jeselvele IGE 


THE DRAMATIC SPECTACLES AT THE 
COURT OF MANTUA 





I 
THE ORFEO 


Tue Duke of Mantua, Vincenzo Gonzaga, had, as we 
have seen, been present at the celebrations in Florence in 
1600 on the occasion of the marriage of Maria de’ Medici 
and Henry IV. Giulio Caccini’s Rapimento di Cefalo, with 
a libretto by Chiabrera, and Jacopo Peri’s music to Rinuc- 
cini’s poem Euridice, had won him over to the cause of musical 
drama. His sons shared his feeling. The hereditary prince, 
Francesco, was passionately fond of the new style, and 
Ferdinando Gonzago, the future Cardinal, then a student 
at the University of Pisa, himself composed libretti which 
he set to music. We know from the correspondence between 
the two brothers with what interest they followed the evolu- 
tion of the new dramatic genre. While Emilio del Cavaliere 
was having his oratorio La Rappresentazione di Anima e di 
Corpo performed in Rome, while, following his example, 
Agazzari, Quagliati, Landi, Kapsberger and other eminent 
Roman musicians were attempting to put the szle recitativo 
into practice, there had been successfully performed in 
Florence a musical comedy, E morti et i vivi, a revival of the 
Dafne and, on December sth, 1603, Caccini’s Euridice 
composed to the libretto which had already been set to music 
by Jacopo Peri.* The new style seemed already to be 
congealing into formule. It was in vain for Caccini to 
adorn his frigid melopeia with melismata and embellishments 


* See Note 45. 
55 


56 THE DRAMATIC SPECTACLES 


moulded upon the accentuation of the words, it but rarely 
offered organized melodic periods, profound dramatic feeling.* 
The few expressive songs to be found here and there in the 
musical dramas of Caccini, of Peri, of Cavaliere only accen- 
tuate their general meagreness and the monotony of the 
melopeia which drags its slow length along above the thorough- 
bass. ‘The enthusiasm of the public can only be explained 
by the novelty of the undertaking and the incomparable 
talent of the performers. 

As early as 1603 the Duke of Mantua was preoccupied 
with the introduction of musical drama at his court. He 
engaged a large number of artists, the youthful Roman 
Caterinuccia Martinelli, whom he handed over to Monte- 
verdi, and the Neapolitan harpist Lucrezia Urbana. He 
already had in his service excellent women-singers capable 
of performing the new music, in particular the famous Jewess 
surnamed Madama Europa, sister of the composer Salomone 
de Rossi, himself in the service of the Duke in the capacity 
of violist, and Sabina, pupil of the great singer Francesco 
Rasi, who had played the principal réle in Peri’s Euridice 
in Florence in 1600. In January 1607, Vincenzo besought 
the Grand Duke of Tuscany to lend him Giov. Gualberto 
Magli for a fortnight. ‘This famous castrato had been trained 
by Giulio Caccini and excelled in recitative. 

On February 23rd, 1607,f Prince Francesco hastened to 
communicate to his brother, who was retained at Pisa by 
his studies, the following important piece of news: “ There 
will be a performance to-morrow of the piece which was sung 
in our Academy. ‘This is thanks to Giov. Gualberto, who 
has behaved very well, having not only learnt the whole of 
his part by heart, but performed it in the most graceful and 
touching fashion, so that I am entirely satisfied with him. 
As the libretto has been printed, in order that each spectator 


* See Note 46. t See Note 47. 


“ORFEO’ 57 


may have it in his hands while the piece is being sung, I am 
sending you a copy of it.” This was the libretto which 
Monteverdi had just set to music—the Orfeo. 

We do not know in what circumstances Monteverdi 
composed the score of the Orfeo to a libretto by the poet 
Alessandrio Striggio, secretary to the Duke and son of the 
famous madrigalist. Prince Francesco seems to have played 
an important part in the affair.* Indeed, it is to him that 
the printed score was dedicated. 

The Orfeo was performed under his auspices, during one 
of the meetings of the Accademia degh Invaghiti which were 
held in the Royal Palace. It was quite a private, experimental 
performance, to which were invited only the intimate friends 
of the sovereigns. ‘The success was decisive. The hereditary 
prince announced it to his brother in the following terms: 
“The piece was performed to the satisfaction of all who 
heard it. And indeed, My Lord the Duke, not satisfied 
with having been present at the performance, and with having 
heard numerous rehearsals, has ordered another performance, 
which will be given to-day in the presence of all the ladies of 
the town, and it is for this reason that Giov. Gualberto is still 
here. He has done very well, and given great pleasure to 
all by his singing, and especially to My Lady the 
Duchess.” 

This letter, with another addressed to the Duke by the poet 
Dom Cherubino Ferrari, who writes, after reading the score, 
that no better rendering of human emotion could be con- 
ceived than that given by the poet and the musician, consti- 
tute all the strictly contemporary records of the success of 
the Orfeo which have been preserved. Yet that success was 
considerable. Monteverdi’s work was, at the instigation 
of the Duke of Mantua, performed two years later in Turin, 
and perhaps in Florence. A concert performance was given 

* See Note 48. 


58 THE DRAMATIC SPECTACEEsS 


at Cremona, and doubtless in other towns. ‘The score 
printed at Venice in 1609 was reprinted in 1615. 


The Orfeo is incontestably the masterpiece of the Riforma 
Melodrammatica. Monteverdi masters the Florentine system, 
penetrates its defects, realizes its possibilities. Like Vecchi, 
he sees that it is unnecessary to enslave music to poetry, that 
music can be itself a kind of true poetry, capable of expressing 
emotion as truly as words. 

The great achievement of the ancients had been to awaken 
emotion, and Monteverdi, having often tried to reach this 
end in his madrigals, attains it magnificently in the Orfeo. 
He adopts the form of musical drama invented by the Floren- 
tine Camerata, but enriches it with a host of technical details 
borrowed from the Italian madrigalists and organists, and from 
the French composers of airs de cour and ballets. In point of 
fact, the Florentines fought shy of music. They concentrated 
on sequestrating it, on preventing it from “ destroying 
poetry.”” Monteverdi does not fear it, because he is its 
master. He thinks that it should play an important part 
in drama. While Marco da Gagliano, himself a thorough- 
bred musician, inspired rather by the experiments of Caccini, 
seeks to render the drama more musical by multiplying 
canzonette and choruses in madrigal style, Monteverdi 
follows rather the example of Jacopo Peri and of Sigis- 
mondo d’India, and gets to grips with the recitative itself, 
rather than with accessory details. At the same time, by 
an inspiration of genius, and influenced by the prestige of 
the French ballets in which instrumental music played an 
important part, he brings into play all the resources of the 
orchestra in order to express emotion. One cannot say that 
Monteverdi was an inventor of musical forms to the same 


“ORFEO’ 59 


degree as Jacopo Peri, Emilio del Cavaliere, or Caccini, 
but he was able to turn all their discoveries to advantage and 
to create the masterpiece they had vaguely conceived, but 
which their own genius was powerless to create. 

Striggio’s tragedy is closely akin to the pastoral genre 
illustrated by Rinuccini and Chiabrera, and, in common 
with the latter, the author lays himself open to criticism by 
his stile gonfiato, by the conventional majesty of his verse, and 
by the insipidity of his mythological intrigue. But Monte- 
verdi was capable of so making this poem his own, of so 
“warming it with the flame of his music’ that it becomes as 
living, as moving as the music itself. There are, moreover, 
moments of pathos in the libretto, and the tragic scenes are 
treated with vigorous sobriety. 

The piece comprises a short prologue and five acts. The 
first act is occupied with the songs of nymphs and shepherds 
who joyously celebrate the nuptials of Orpheus and Eurydice, 
while the spouses sing their mutual love. 

In Act II, Orpheus has returned to his own country, and 
greets the places familiar to his youth. ‘The shepherds 
welcome him joyously, but Silvia, the messenger of doom, 
arrives to announce the death of Eurydice from the sting of 
aserpent. Orpheus utters a single cry, then remains plunged 
in grief, while the shepherds pour forth lamentations. 
Soon he returns to himself, and, rebelling against Fate, swears 
to snatch the prey of Hell from its jaws. In the third act, 
Orpheus arrives on the banks of the river of Hades, and 
having lulled the savage pilot asleep by his melodious song, 
enters into the fatal bark alone. In the fourth act, Orpheus, 
the conqueror of death, returns towards the light of day, 
leading Eurydice; furious spirits pursue them; fearing to 
lose her, he breaks his compact and turns back. Eurydice, 
already a fleeting shade, bewails her fate for a moment, and — 
disappears while the infernal chorus sings its victory. The 


60 THE DRAMATIC SPECTACLES 


fifth act is weak. ‘The poet avoids the horrible dénouement of 
the legend, the rending of Orpheus by the Bacchantes. He 
prefers, after a scene in which Echo replies to the despair of 
Orpheus, to introduce Apollo, who, as “‘ Deus ex machina,” 
offers to his son that he shall enter living into immortality. 
Orpheus and Apollo ascend to heaven in a chariot, while 


the chorus celebrate in song and dance the apotheosis of the 
lyre-bearer. 


Among the Florentines, dramatic expression was confided 
to the voices only. The meagre ritornelli of Cavaliere are 
purely decorative. But with Monteverdi it is quite another 
matter; the instruments are almost as important as the 
voices. 

The basis of the drama is certainly declamation, but we 
are a long way here from the lifeless recitative of the Floren- 
tine innovators. Monteverdi’s recitative is rich in melodic 
accents. There are arias and songs in the Orfeo, but the 
striking point is that all the principal scenes are treated in 
free recitative style. In the admirable narration of the 
Messenger, so moving in its simplicity, a few chromatics 
and a sudden modulation from E into E flat major are sufficient 
to give an impression of anguish and horror. Silvia’s narra- 
tion is accompanied by a small positive organ (organo dt 
Jegno) and a chitarrone. The plaintive, veiled tones of 
these instruments, which succeed abruptly to the brilliant 
and ringing high notes of the treble viols and harpsichord 
which accompanied the voices of the shepherds, must have 
further accentuated the impression of gloom. 

Orpheus’ despair, when he has cast off the stupor into 
which the fatal message has thrown him, is again expressed — 
in the recitative style. It is difficult to say, in this celebrated 


OM ee OP 61 


passage, what is most admirable, whether its dramatic intensity 
or the intelligence with which its least details are worked out. 
“Tu sei morta,’ murmurs Orpheus, scarcely conscious as 
yet of the possibility of such horror. ‘‘ Thou art dead, and 
I live,” and gradually the tone rises. His whole being 
rebels against destiny. Now he cries aloud; he will go 
and claim Eurydice from the King of Darkness, and will 
bring her back to the light. Then great peace descends 
upon his soul, and he utters the exquisite phrase, ‘I shall 
bring thee back; thou shalt once more see the light.” 


EXAMPLE 15 





me-co trar-rot - ti a ri - ve-der le ste! - - le, 


Doubt assails him. Yet no matter; if he fails, he will 
remain with her among the dead, and he SRE a solemn eM 
to the earth and to the suh. 


EXAMPLE 16 





a dio ter-ra, a dio cie - lo e so -le, AY NO ee Te: 


The way in which the phrases of this song, while exactly 
moulded on the poetic text, maintain a perfect balance is a 
marvel. This is truly melody unbound. 

In the first act, Orpheus’ love-song, Rosa del ciel, is a 
magnificent example of an aria recitative. The recitative is 
perfectly free in form, but, while reflecting intimately all 
the suggestions of the text, it is so tuneful that it can be 
regarded as a true melody. It is a far cry from this to the 
hollow narrations of Peri and Cavaliere. 

Monteverdi, in the same way as Lulli did later, excels 


62 THE DRAMATIC ’SPECTACI ES 


in extracting from the very sound of a word the melody 
latent within it. For him, there are no two ways of expressing 
the same words in music. When a group of words recurs 
in the course of the drama, it invariably reintroduces the 
same melodic figure. The Messenger cries, “ 4hi! caso 
acerbo! Ahi fat empio e crudele! Ahi, stelle ingiuriose, 
Ahi, Ciel avaro!” 
EXAMPLE I7 





ca-so acer-bo Ahi fat’empio e cru - - de - - le Ahi 








AES EE A BORED DD IEE SA SS ROE) 
A TC GE ERENT RS IS Fe 
Pee Heseey Pan Pee 
Pes REED TM PE 





dP RS Es 
& BERNE TET 





_ Stelle ingi- u-ro --- se Ahi Ciel — a--Va----- ro 


A little later on, the shepherd utters the same imprecations, 
and the chorus takes them up in its turn at the end of the 
act.* ‘I'he melody undergoes some slight changes in respect 
of the value of the notes, but the intervals are unchanged. 

Monteverdi’s recitative tends to become an arioso. Gener- 
ally the first and the last phrases are more pronouncedly 
melodic in character than the rest of the piece. ‘The recitative 
which is terminated by Orpheus’ ardent prayer, Rendete mi 
il mio bene, Tartarei Numi, is a model of this aria-recitative 
style.f Frequently the extremely melodious opening phrase 
is repeated at the end of the passage, thus forming a kind of 
rudimentary aria da capo. ‘The shepherd’s song in the first 
act, /n questo eto e fortunato giorno, is a curious example of 
this. ‘I'he opening phrase and its repetition occupy three- 
quarters of the entire passage.t 

In addition to these aria-recitatives, in which the recitative 
is enclosed by the repetition of the initial phrase, Monteverdi 
makes frequent use of the strophic aria, in which different 
stanzas are sung, if not to the same melody, at any rate on 

* See Note 49. t See Note 50. + See Note 51. 


‘ORFEO’ 6 


oN) 


the same bass. This is the case in the air of Music in 
the Prologue. The recitative changes with each stanza, but 
the bass, in its general outline at least, remains the same, and 
gives a profound coherence tothe whole. In Act IV, Orpheus, 
while leading Eurydice back to earth, sings on the same bass 
(ascending and descending runs repeated in sequences) three 
stanzas, the melodies of which, whilst offering considerable 
points of resemblance, are not identical.* 

The aria in which Orpheus pleads with the infernal deities 
in the third act is one of the oldest examples known of an 
air in concerted style. The figured bass is performed by a 
small positive organ doubled by a chitarrone, while two violins 
contend with the voice throughout the first stanza. ‘Two 
cornetti, succeeded by two harps (arpe doppie), replace the 
violins in the succeeding stanzas, thus modifying the tone 
atmosphere of the passage. ‘The violins, cornetti, or harps 
are heard as soon as the voice ceases, and play brief ritorne//i 
at the end of each stanza.. 


EXAMPLE 18 






































Orfeo 
a 
DD |e CEST VE (RA We 
w 28, am 1A Jes 6 GS |) Se \0 RS Re \ es aa ees 
Hep ee i a gpl gg bey ag 
di : 
or che poi di vi - ----ta é.- 
p Daot cornet PTT de | 
a =< a ms a 22 
s@le Ea 7 a SS CRE ET IA 
en pi ER ca LE AS SE TE NT Mh AS TAT RE EST ET 
Bnape. SS SST ETS SS ED ca Rae ee RE IE ORES TESTE 
———— 
an So Se i SE EES BETES SETS 
Ge FRE eS OAD ET Ea 
Pa: = 
8 —— 
Jo L000 SiN Ries a a I = See — — — id Ue Re SS 
Sn aa CS SA a eee ak cd Gt ek eer ee ee 
2) 2 se SE , 0 SE EE ST ID 
4 —— 
pr --«-va Seen mia—— cara— spo -- sa 
p _ TT , 
en re @ ha }d4 Ot Mm EET ESTEE CEE ALE CLL AEE. LIE A EDEL LADE LAD 
de ee ree ee ee 
tfanV io) CER ES A ES ES CR PE” RA REET, ARAL EROS SE ET 
ES A AT i ae A OE AP Ae A a SRN AD RNR RIRRE RES SER e SRST 


ee 

















64. THE DRAMATIC SPECTACLES 


The vocal part is ornamented.. Following the example 
given some years earlier by Caccini in his Nuove Musiche. 
Monteverdi himself composes the expressive vocalises and 
melismata with which the voice-part should be decorated, 
but publishes simultaneously a perfectly unadorned version 
of the melody, as though he wished to leave the choice 
open. 


EXAMPLE 19 





sciolta in-van - 


al - - - ------mada ———______ cor - - - po 





The melodic contour is only slightly defined, and the 
whole passage is rather a highly ornate recitative than an 
aria in the sense in which we understand the term now. 
Whilst in the dramatic narrations Monteverdi seems to have 
drawn his inspiration from Peri, in Orpheus’ strophic aria 
he takes Caccini as his model. It is an exercise in virtuosity, 
with trills, and reiterated notes which show off to the full 
the technical skill of the singer, but it maintains at the same 
time a highly expressive quality. At one time the voice 
seems to sob : 


EXAMPLE 20 








‘ORFEO’ 65 


A beautiful melodic phrase, twice repeated, serves as 
conclusion. 


EXAMPLE 21 





By the side of these arias in recitative style, we find others 
in rhythmic form after the fashion of the Scherzi Musicali and 
the French airs mesurés, such as the two airs which Orpheus 
sings in Act II,* Ecco pur ch’a voi ritorno and Vi ricorda o 
boschi ombrost. ‘The first is constructed upon the following 
metrical scheme o-—v—-o—-—; the scheme of the second is 
more complete, but, as in the French airs de cour, remains 
unchanged in the various succeeding stanzas. 


EXAMPLE 22 





De miei lun -ghi aspri tormen - ti Quando i sas - si a miei la- men - ti 


The bass keeps to this rhythm, and the ritorne//fi are con- 
structed, in the same way as those of the Scherzi Musicah, 
upon a motive repeated in strict sequences in the bass. The 
dreamy, melancholy atmosphere of these airs corresponds 
pretty well to the atmosphere of the airs de cour, though the 
melodic contour is entirely Italian. 

There are few scenes in which Monteverdi introduces 
two or three solo-voices simultaneously. ‘There is still no 
intermediary between the monody and the madrigal. The 
only passage which already offers something like a genuine 

* Note See 53. 


66 THE DRAMATIC SPECTACLES 


duet is that which Apollo and Orpheus sing together in 
ascending to heaven.* The two voices following each other 
in canonic imitations, or uniting in long chains of thirds the 
runs and fiorituri with which the parts are decorated, make 
of this passage one of the most ancient sae of the classical 
operatic duet. 

The choruses, which are numerous and important, are 
extremely varied. Monteverdi here displays his astonishing 
mastery of the madrigal form, and, indeed, several of these 
choruses are pure madrigals, bringing into play all the possi- 
bilities of the most audacious polyphony. ‘This is so in the 
chorus of spirits: Nulla impresa per uom st tenta in vano, 
which celebrates Orpheus’ victory, and which, as M. Romain 
Rolland points out, “is resplendent with all the pride of the 
Renaissance.’ ‘This five-part chorus is supported by the 
regals, the small positive organ (di /egno), five trombones, 
two bassi da gamba, and a contrabasso. Its splendour recalls 
certain motets of the school of Gabrieli.t 

In addition to the choruses in imitations, Monteverdi 
introduces frequent homophonic choruses in syllabic diction 
in precise and well-marked rhythms. In Act I the chorus 
of shepherds, Vient [meneo, supported by the orchestra, bears 
to heaven the ardent and joyous prayer of a whole people. 
Elsewhere, the two genres are felicitously combined, but the 
madrigal style predominates, and Monteverdi frequently — 
renders exactly the images suggested by the poem. ‘The 
voices ascend on the words cie/o (heaven) or sa/ita (ascent), 
they scatter rapidly on fugge (flight), and 2/ precipizio (precipice), 
is the occasion for an impressive descending sixth. These 
details in no way diminish the general expressive value of 
the passage. Terror, grief, revolt are powerfully rendered 
in this chorus, which expresses the lamentations of the 
shepherds after the death of Eurydice.§ 

* See Note 54. + See Note55. {See Note56. § See Note 57. 


‘ORFEO’ 67 


Sometimes, to make a contrast, Monteverdi inserts a duet 
or a trio between two choruses. ‘This happens in the pastoral 
scenes of the first act; and these passages are treated in very 
simple homophonic style, in the same way as the canzonette 
and villanelle for two or three voices which were so popular 
two or three years earlier. 

Frequently the voices combine with the instruments in 
choruses with dancing in the French fashion. Some are 
treated, partially at least, in imitation, but this is the except- 
ion, and most frequently the diction is syllabic, and the 
harmonies are vertical. These ballets, which were played, 
sung and danced, comprise several alterations of time. That 
in Act I is very characteristic from this point of view.  Lasciate 
i monti is sung by the voices entering successively in canon 
in common time. ‘This first part forms the exirée proper of 
the ballet. Having taken up their positions, the nymphs 
begin the dance in lively well-marked rhythm in 3/2 time: 
gui miri il sole. An instrumental ritornello in 6/4 time inter- 
rupts the voices for a moment, but the dance proceeds, and 
the voices re-enter to conclude the chorus with further stanzas 
in 3/2 time. Quite a little orchestra composed of five viole 
da braccio, three chitarroni, two harpsichords, a double harp, 
a contrabasso di viola and a small flite-a-bec (flautino alla 
vigesima) accompanies the voices and plays the ritornello. 

The whole score shows considerable attention to variety 
of effect. The Euridice of Peri and Caccini are both tedious 
by reason of their lack of colour. The lines are delicately, 
or even occasionally vigorously drawn, but there is little 
play of light and shade. Everything 1s on the one plane, 
joy or sadness. On the contrary, contrast abounds in the 
Orfeo of Monteverdi. The powerful Venetian colourist is 
at work. ‘The first act is a luminous tone-picture in clear 
tints. It is almost entirely given up to joyous shepherd 
choruses with dancing. ‘There is no action, properly speak- 





68 THE DRAMATIC *SPECTACLES 


ing, but only the evocation of a rural landscape in an atmo- 
sphere of serene joy. ‘The atmosphere of the second act is 
sombre throughout. ‘The songs in which Orpheus hails his 
country are inspired with a grave sadness, as though the hero 
were under the spell of foreboding, and when the grief- 
stricken exclamations of the messenger reach his ears from 
far off, he immediately grasps what has befallen him. Over- 
whelmed, he can do no more than murmur “ Alas!” when 
the fatal tidings are announced. An abrupt modulation 
from C into A major on Silvia’s arrival gives the effect of a 
cloud brooding over the scene, and, till the end of the scene, 
the music maintains its gloomy character. In Act III, by 
the substitution of brass for the strings, Monteverdi produces 
a dark and truly malevolent effect. ‘The fourth act is all 
in half-tints, suited to the pale light which reigns in the 
infernal regions, and in Act V there is a progression from 
the dark despair of Orpheus to the golden glow of the musical 
apotheosis. Later, Monteverdi obtained these colour effects 
by harmony and rhythm only, but here he principally 
employs the orchestra to that end. In this, he shows an 
astonishing sensitiveness to the expressive value of each 
instrument, and to what we call instrumental colour, but in 
this he is no innovator, as has often been stated. 

In the course of the sixteenth century the marvellous 
effectiveness of trombones, cornetti, and trumpets in infernal 
scenes, of trumpets and drums in warlike action, of flutes and 
oboes in pastoral intermezzi, of viols in scenes of love or 
sadness, of harps, lutes or regals in apotheosis scenes, had 
gradually been recognized. This is the way in which instru- 
ments were employed in families in the mysteries, the sacre 
rappresentazioni, as well as in court interludes. There was 
nothing revolutionary in Monteverdi’s making use of all 
the instrumental performers of the Duke of Mantua; * on 

* See Note 58. : 


‘“ORFEO’ 69 


the contrary, this was strictly traditional. Progress was to 
consist in simplifying the orchestra, in readjusting its balance, 
in giving it a sounder basis, to the detriment of its brilliance 
and variety. 

What is quite peculiar to Monteverdi is the use of symphonic 
fragments as genuine “‘ leading motives ”’ to ensure the unity 
of the drama, and to express certain definite feelings. The 
piece entitled Ritornello, which is not a ritornello in the ordinary 
sense of the word (since it is not associated with a song from 
which it takes its melodic themes), seems to be as it were 
the “leading motive” of Orpheus. It is heard during the 
prologue between the verses sung by Music to announce 
the subject of the play, it reappears with slight modifications 
at the end of Act II and of Act IV. In the same way, the 
symphony for seven instruments which bursts out like an 
imperious supplication at the end of Act II reappears modified* 
and is played pianissimo by the viols and the small positive 
organ at the moment when Orpheus prepares to enter the 
bark of the sleeping Charon while invoking the powers of 
Hades. It is again played by seven instruments after Orpheus’ 
prayer, Rendete mi il mio bene, Tartarei Numi, and concludes 
Act III, following on the chorus of spirits, Nudla impresa per 
uom si tenta in vana. It expresses the amorous daring of 
Orpheus, who does not so much implore the Gods as command 
them. Finally, the infernal symphony which opens Act III, 
which is confided to the drums, cornetti and regals, reappears 
in Act V after the scene of Orpheus’ despair, expressing the 
ghastly enchantment of the region in which Eurydice lives. 

The Prologue opens with a Toccata, a magnificent move- 
ment in four parts, abrupt and powerful in rhythm. It was 
played three times by an orchestra in which the brass 
predominates (clarino, vulgano, trombe con sordine). With its 
runs in sequences, its joyous clamours, it is very characteristic 
of Monteverdi’s orchestration. 


70 THE DRAMATIC SPECTACLES 


The ritornello which follows, and which we can regard as 
the “leading motive’ of Orpheus, is constructed upon the 
rhythmic plan of the bass repeated four times in strict sequence. 
This process recalls that of the ritornelli of the Scherzi Musicah, 
and the opening ritorne/lo of Orpheus’ Air in Act II, Ecco 
pur cha voi ritorno. Here the bass repeats four times in 
sequence the same melodic and rhythmic theme which the 
two violini piccoli alla francese embellish with figures in thirds 
of an elegant simplicity. We have seen that the air of Orpheus 
conforms to a strict metrical plan. The same arrangement ~ 
reappears in the five-part ritornello of Orpheus’ second air, 
Vi ricorda, o bosch’ ombrosi, which is also metrical. Monte- 
verdi therefore seems to have had in mind, in composing 
these ritornelli, the rhythmic formule so much in favour 
among the French masters. Its style, like that of the 
French ballets, is only very slightly polyphonic; single 
chords support a melodic theme played in thirds by the 
violins. 

The sinfonie are never dominated by a rhythmic figure 
frequently repeated. The style is free and varied. Whilst 
the five-part sinfonia which concludes Act I recalls some- 
what the style of the French ballets, the symphony on the banks 
of the Styx, with its heavy homophonic chords interrupted 
by silences, is Monteverdi’s own, and there is nothing in 
contemporary music with which it can be compared. 

Other symphonic passages are polyphonic in character ; 
for example, the passage in seven parts, which celebrates the 
victory of Hades over Orpheus, played by cornetti, trombones 
and regals. ‘This superb sixfonia recalls the sumptuous 
sonatas of Gabrielli. 

In Act I the curious ritorne//o which precedes the shepherds’ 
trio is nothing less than a ricercare for organ in five parts on a 
bass theme obstinately repeated in sequences. “Iwo themes 
are ingeniously elaborated in canon. 


*“ORFEO’ ry 


EXAMPLE 23 





What, we might ask, is this piece of church music, which 

might be the work of a Giov. Gabrieli or a Claudio Merulo, 
doing in this opera? The explanation is that it embodies 
the impression of rude strength and harsh gravity which 
best befits true shepherds. We are among the mountains 
of Greece, and not in the artificial Arcadia of the Italian 
academicians. 
_ Monteverdi is not a man of formule. He takes advantage 
of all the formule current in his day, of all those which he 
himself invented or brought to perfection. By the side of 
ritornelli on strict metrical plans we find sinfonie in homo- 
phonic or polyphonic style, toccate, ricercari, morisques. By 
the side of dramatic recitatives we find aria-recitatives, 
strophic airs, airs mesurés, choruses in homophonic style 
or in counterpoint, and ballets played, sung, and danced. 
Monteverdi brought to the development of the new form 
of tragedy in recitative all the technical resources of which 
his genius disposed. He turned the aristocratic spectacle 
of Florence into modern musical drama, overflowing with 
life and bearing in its mighty waves of sound the passions 
which make up the human soul. 


II 
THE “ ARIANNA” AND THE FETES OF 1608 


In July 1607, while the Duke, accompanied by his favourite 
musicians, was resting at the baths of Sampierdarena, Mon- 
teverdi went to Cremona. His wife Claudia had been in 
failing health for some time past, and Monteverdi doubtless 
wished to confide her to the care of his father, who, as we have 
seen, was a doctor. He was in great need of rest himself. 
He complains of his health in a letter written on July 28th to 
excuse his delay in setting to music a sonnet which the Duke 
had sent him. His compatriots gave him an enthusiastic 
welcome; the Accademia degh Animosi gave in his honour, on 
August roth, a concert during which fragments of the Orfeo 
were performed. Leaving his wife and two children at 
Cremona, Monteverdi left some days after the ceremony for 
Milan to confer with the poet Dom Cherubino Ferrari. 

In going to Milan he was not actuated solely by the desire of 
showing the score of the Orfeo to a friend in a friendly way. 
The Carmelite monk, Dom Ferrari, was famous for his talent 
in the invention of interludes, spectacles, ballets, tournaments. 
He was at the moment much occupied with the creation of 
something new and singular for the fétes which were to be 
given at Turin and Mantua on the occasion of the marriage 
of Francesco Gonzaga and Princess Margaret of Savoy. In 
a letter addressed to the Duke of Modena, he recalls that he 
has employed his talent in the service of the Dukes of Savoy 
and Mantua, and has provided them with poetic texts and all 
kinds of inventions. ‘‘ I am well practised,” he writes on 

72 


‘“ARIANNA’ 73 


March 8th, 1608, “in this kind of dramatic composition, as 
can testify aendic Monteverdi, Maestro di Cappella of the eae 
of Mantua, who consults me about his compositions.” 
Monteverdi, therefore, had gone to Milan to submit the ae 
to the ptofessional judgment of this monk, who was an expert 
in all matters relating to the theatre. 

Whilst Monteverdi was in Milan, the Scherzi Musical 
were being published at Venice. Monteverdi, who was too 
busy to supervise this publication, had entrusted it to the care 
of his brother Giulio Cesare. Giulio Cesare, who was six 
years younger than his brother, was alsoa musician. Heseems 
to have had little talent as a composer, to judge from pieces of 
his composition published in the collection of the Scherzi 
Musical, but he rendered signal service to his brother. At the 
court of Mantua, he seems to have acted as his factotum, and 
was continually occupied in supervising rehearsals, in copying 
music, in practising with the singers. 

On his return to Cremona, Monteverdi found his wife 
in a desperate state. She died on September 1oth and was 
buried in the church of SS. Nazaro e Celso. His grief was 
profound. He was left with two young children, and was 
deprived of his helpmeet, herself an excellent musician, 
capable of understanding him and standing by him in the 
struggle he had to go through in the cause of his art. Nor 
was the privacy of his grief respected. Claudia was hardly 
buried when the Duke sent for him, and Monteverdi had 
to return to Mantua to prepare the marriage festivities. 
Federigo Follino wrote him an affectionate letter persuading 
him to return, condoling with him upon the loss of a noble 
wife of outstanding talent, but exhorting him to return to 
Mantua. ‘‘ The moment has come,’ he writes, “‘ to attain 
to the greatest glory that man can hope for on earth.’’ With 
an effort to control his grief, Monteverdi set out for Mantua. 

* See Note 59. 


74 THE DRAMATIC SPECTACLES 


His sorrow-stricken soul found consolation in his work, and 
his own despair found utterance in the laments of the forsaken 
Ariadne. 

For the libretto of the tragedy which Monteverdi was to 
set to music the Duke of Mantua had commissioned the 
most famous poet in Italy in the genre, Ottavio Rinuccint. 

Himself of noble birth, this poet was accustomed to the 
society of the greatest princes. It was said of him that he 
had been in love with Maria de’ Medici, and that this was the 
sole reason for his continual journeys to France.* A violent 
cabal had recently been formed against him in Florence, and 
had forced him to hold aloof from the preparation of the 
fétes to celebrate the marriage of the hereditary prince of 
Tuscany. In the state of wounded pride in which he was, 
Rinuccini had enthusiastically accepted the proposal of the 
Duke of Mantua, and had set to work, taking as subject of 
his tragedy the pathetic story of the misfortunes of Ariadne. 

Meanwhile, Ferdinando Gonzaga had somewhat heedlessly 
accepted a libretto from the Florentine poet Cini. The 
recitatives and soli of this opera, Tet, were set to music by 
Jacopo Peri, the exsembles being reserved for Monteverdi 
and the composers of the Mantuan court. Cini and Peri had 
‘almost finished their work when the order was countermanded 
from Mantua by Ferdinando, who had been advised of his 
father’s agreement with Rinuccini and Monteverdi.t The 
Teti was therefore put aside. The text has disappeared,{ 
but we can deduce from one of Jacopo Peri’s letters that it 
contained nothing strikingly original. 

Peri continued to neglect instrumental accompaniments, 
and for his thorough-bass only used harmonic instruments, 
a harpsichord, a great lyre and a harp. He desired doubtless 
to imitate the sound of the lyres which had accompanied the 
voices 1n ancient music. 


* See Note 60. t See Note 61. t See Note 62. 


‘“ARIANNA’ 4 ¢ 


Monteverdi returned to Mantua on October roth, and 
showed some impatience to obtain Rinuccini’s libretto, for 
the Duke intended to celebrate the marriage in January, and 
the musician was dismayed at the brief time allowed him. 

As soon as the poet arrived in Mantua, Monteverdi set 
to work. But unfavourable circumstances caused the post- 
ponement of the date fixed for the marriage ceremonies. Seeing 
that the Arianna could not be ready for carnival-time, the 
Duke decided to have another spectacle, less difficult of 
execution, performed in January. Rinuccini offered the Duke 
his Dafne, which had once been set to music by Jacopo Pert, 
and subsequently by the Florentine musician Marco da 
Gagliano. ‘The Prince Ferdinando had been ordained 
Cardinal on Christmas Day ; it was decided that this preliminary 
spectacle should be performed in his honour.* 

We have information relating to the performances of the 
Dafne in Marco da Gagliano’s celebrated preface to the 
printed score.t Monteverdi’s pupil, Caterinuccia, achieved 
a signal triumph on this occasion, as did a singer of the Tuscan 
court, Antonio Brandi, called I] Brandino. We know that 
Rinuccini had considerably modified the original libretto, and 
that the musician had adroitly interpolated in the score several 
airs and madrigals composed by the cardinal Ferdinando di 
Gonzaga. The score of Dafne is of great interest, in that it 
shows the tendency of drama in recitative to become tuneful. 

Marco da Gagliano,t himself the pupil of one of the last 
Florentine defenders of the contrapuntal tradition, had 
already composed numerous masses and motets when the 
performance of Dafue opened up new horizons before him. 
He had been attracted to the ideal of emotional expression 
which Monteverdi and Gesualdo, Prince of Venosa, were 
striving to attain, and adopted at once the creed of the 
Florentines. ‘The pleasure of the spectator must arise from 


* See Note 63. Tt See Note 64. t See Note 65. 


76 THE DRAMATIC SPECTACLES 


his comprehension of the words. Now this theory is certainly 
more literary than musical. But Da Gagliano was a far better 
musician than Peri or Emilio del Cavaliere. Without perhaps 
being conscious of doing so, he reintroduced music into sung 
tragedy. 

In glancing through the score of the Dafne, one notices 
that the melodic phrase falls into harmonious periods, that 
the melopeia no longer drifts vaguely along, finding a pre- 
carious support in the accentuation of the words: it has a 
more definite contour. Marco da Gagliano makes no attempt 
to express passion in music, as Monteverdi or Sigismondo 
d’India had done; he is preoccupied mainly with form. 
The Orfeo and the Dafne therefore symbolize the two channels 
by which the me/odramma was approaching dramatic expressive- 
ness and formal beauty. The tendencies are conflicting ; they 
converged in the last works of Monteverdi and in the works 
of such men as Cavalli, Luigi Rossi, Cesti, of all those creators 
of expressive beauty to whom history is only now beginning 
to pay homage. 

The Arianna was due to succeed the Dafne. Monteverdi 
was working at it in a positive fever. He had almost finished 
the score on February 2nd and several of the singers who 


were to perform in it had already arrived from Florence ~ 


when a catastrophe occurred. ‘The charming Caterinuccia 
Martinelli, the pupil of Monteverdi, who was to have taken 


the part of Ariadne, fell ill of smallpox and died in a few weeks. — 
She was mourned by all. The Duke commanded that she — 
should be interred in a splendid tomb, and the poets vied with — 
each other in writing verses to celebrate the rare attainments 


of the youthful singer, but seventeen years old. 


The sovereigns of Mantua went to Turin for the marriage — 
ceremony. ‘The celebrations were of long duration, and the — 


Duke prolonged his absence until May. 
Meanwhile, Rinuccini had returned from Florence to 


‘ARIANNA ’ 1 


Mantua, and was, with Monteverdi, putting the finishing 
touches to the preparations for the Arianna. On February 
26th, a meeting was held at the Palace at which were present 
Rinuccini, Monteverdi, the architect Vianini, and Federigo 
Follino, the historian of the court fétes. It was decided 
at this meeting to enliven the Arianna with a divertissement to 
please the Duchess. Caterinuccia had then seemed better, 
and there was no talk of replacing her. It was decided that 
Chiabrera’s interludes for Guarini’s comedy, /’Jdropica, should 
be composed by the principal musicians of the court. 
Monteverdi took charge of the prologue, Salomone de Rossi, 
D. Giov. Giacomo Gastoldi, Marco da Gagliano, Giulio Cesare 
Monteverdi and Paolo Birt divided the interludes between 
them. It was perhaps at the same meeting that Rinuccini, to 
comply with a wish expressed by the Duchess, came to an 
agreement with Monteverdi respecting the composition of 
a third spectacle. This spectacle was the Ballo delle 
Ingrate. 

Later, Monteverdi told how the excessive fatigue caused 
by this business very nearly killed him. He had none of the 
extraordinary facility of certain of his rivals; he worked 
relatively slowly, left nothing to chance, and never wrote a 
bar which had not its raison détre. The composition of a 
lyrical drama such as the Arianna, of an important prologue, 
and a ballet all in less than six months was a task above the 
strength of a man in a state of physical and mental exhaustion. 
The death of Caterinuccia on March 8th aggravated the 
difficulties with which he was struggling ; it was moreover a 
terrible blow to him personally, for he had had the entire 
training of the young artiste. 

Monteverdi advised the Duchess to engage a singer from 
Bergamo to replace Caterinuccia, but this singer refused to 
come to Mantua when approached. No one else had been 
found, when the Duchess heard that the actress Virginia 


78 THE DRAMATIC SPECTACEEs 


Andreini, also called La Florinda, who had just arrived at 
Mantua with the company of the Fedelt to play Guarini’s 
pastoral, had been heard to sing admirably fragments of the 
Arianna. She was sent for, and, to everybody’s delighted 
astonishment, sang to perfection “‘ the most difficult passage ”’ 
—doubtless the famous Lamento. It is quite comprehensible, 
indeed, that a tragic actress, gifted with a fine voice, should be 
able to interpret far better than any concert-singer music such 
as Monteverdi’s, which requires above all highly emotional 
and very dramatic rendering. 

While Monteverdi and Rinuccini were composing the 


Ballo delle Ingrate, Marco da Gagliano and Striggio were — 
working on another ballet, // Sagrificio di Ifigenia, by order — 
of the hereditary prince. ‘The consequence was that there — 


were incessant intrigues and mutual accusations of plagiarism. 
The preparations were finished in this stormy atmosphere, and 


not before time, for the ducal couple were about to enter — 
Mantua, followed by a host of princes, lords, cardinals and ~ 


gentlemen from all parts of Italy. 


It was in the presence of an assembly which Follino — 


estimates at six thousand, and the resident of Modena at four 


thousand, that the Arianna was performed, on May 28th, — 
1608, in an immense theatre constructed by ,the architect 
Vianini in the interior of the castle. The performance of a — 


melodramma had never been witnessed by so large a gathering. 


The guards were powerless and the authority of Carlo Rossi, — 


commander in chief of the Mantuan army, was insufficient to 
maintain order. The Duke was obliged to intervene several 


times in person. Yet in order to keep down the numbers, ~ 
he had forbidden the officers and servants of his household to — 


be present at the spectacle. 


The best singers of Mantua and Florence took part in the — 
performance. In the rdle of Ariadne, Virginia Andreini drew — 


tears from the whole assembly. Later, the poet Marino 





‘ARIANNA ’ 79 


recalled how “ Florinda had sung the cruel torments of Ariadne, 
and drawn a thousand sighs from a thousand breasts.’’* 
Francesco Rasialso did wonders. Brandino, Orlandi, Settimia 
Caccini, all three lent by the Grand Duke of Tuscany for the 
occasion, passed almost unnoticed. 

Of the Arianna we possess only the text of Rinuccini’s 
drama, so classical in its beauty that it has been called 
Racinian,f some contemporary descriptions of the per- 
formance published by Solerti, and finally, the music of 
Scene VI, in which Ariadne, forsaken by Theseus, laments 
her fate. It was, moreover, this lament of Ariadne which 
ensured the success of the work. Monteverdi, perhaps 
because he had put his whole soul into it, attached peculiar 
importance to it. He frequently quotes it in his letters. He 
had a separate edition of it published,{ and later arranged it 
as a madrigal for five voices, to the great regret of Doni, who 
reproached him with “thus having disfigured the pearl of his 
compositions.”” He even adapted it to a sacred text. Copies 
of the Lament spread throughout Italy. The famous 
Adriana Basile sang it at Naples, and Severo Bonini tells us 
that there was not a house in Italy possessing a harpsichord or 
theorbo which did not have the music. 

This is incontestably Monteverdi’s finest dramatic passage. 
Grief is expressed with a majesty which recalls the master- 
pieces of ancient Greece. Heart-rending as it is, this grief is 
without grimace or convulsion. It is the grief of Niobe, who 
sees her children perish, so that it is possible, on reflection, to 
understand the letter—at first sight enigmatic—in which 
Monteverdi states that he was inspired by Plato in composing 
this passage. ‘‘ When I was about to compose the lament of 
Ariadne, I could find no book which could enlighten me on 
natural methods of imitation, nor which would even authorize 
me to imitate, save Plato, and he in a manner so obscure, that, 

* See Note 66. Tt See Note 67. t See Note 68. 


80 THE DRAMATIC SPECTACLES 


with my feeble comprehension, I could scarcely comprehend 
the little which he revealed.”* While pedants were laboriously 
discussing the modes and metres of ancient music, Monteverdi, 
by the intuition of genius, had rediscovered the imitation of 
nature as Greek artists had understood it. 

In the light of contemporary descriptions, we can realize 
that the score of the Arianna was composed on the same 
principles as that of the Orfeo. A very large number of 
instruments was engaged in the performance. Each scene 
was accompanied by the instruments which corresponded 
best to its dramatic character. In the prologue, during the — 
gradual descent of the cloud bearing Apollo, a symphony of — 
various instruments was heard, first alone, then as an accom- 
paniment to the voice of the god. 

The orchestra was placed behind the stage, so as to be hidden 
from the spectators.t The lament of Ariadne was accompanied 
by viols. Monteverdi, in common with Mersenne, seems 
to have thought that the viol, which “ imitates the voice in all — 
its modulations,” is better suited to the accompaniment of 
voices than the violin, and is specially suited to “sad and 
grave ’’ passages in “‘ broad, slow rhythm.” ft 

Rinuccini’s tragedy was modelled upon the plan of ancient 
drama. There is a somewhat conventional prologue, followed 
by the main action divided into five acts separated by choruses. 
Theseus’ disembarkment in the first act is full of heroic 
grandeur. Alone at nightfall, Theseus and Ariadne recount 
their love. Ariadne, in spite of her lover’s promises and 
protestations, her soul troubled by sinister presentiments, is 
invaded by melancholy. Act II shows Theseus’ hesitations ; 
tortured by ambition, love, remorse, he resolves finally (like — 
Titus in Racine’s Berenice) to yield to reasons of state and 
abandon Ariadne. In Act III, Ariadne awakens, and is 
anxious at Theseus’ absence. Reassured by her confidante, — 


* See Note 69 t See Note 70 + See Note 71. 





‘ARIANNA’ 8 I 


she reproaches herself for having doubted her lover, and sets 
off to seek him. 

Act IV opens with the narration of a messenger, who has 
seen the departure of the fleet. Ariadne, scarcely able to 
support herself, enters and utters her complaint, which is 
interrupted from time to time by the exclamations of the chorus 
and the exhortations of her confidante. Every shade of grief 
is magnificently expressed by the poet—desire for death, 
dejection, anguish, self-pity, revolt, despair. One can 
imagine the comfort Monteverdi must have derived from the 
composition of this scene, in which he gives expression to the 
erief which had tortured him since the death of his own beloved 
Claudia. Indeed, the great power of this Lament resides less 
in its plastic beauty than in the variety and intensity of its 
dramatic feeling. 


EXAMPLE 24 





This is no mere recitative : words have become song, and 
this passage remained unparalleled in its intensity until the 
advent of Gluck. 

Though the melodic intervals of the diminished seventh 
and fifth were then new, Monteverdi knew their expressive 
power. He uses them with felicitous audacity. 


EXAMPLE 25 





82 THE DRAMATICGSPECTAG TSS 


In Act V a messenger announces the arrival of Bacchus, and 
the marriage of the liberator God with the blushing Cretan. 
The piece terminates in rejoicings celebrating simultaneously 
in song and dance the nuptials of Ariadne and of Marguerite 
of Savoy. ‘This dénouement somewhat impairs an admirable 
tragedy. It appears to have been commanded by the Duchess 
of Mantua, who found the subject a little gloomy for perform- 
ance at a wedding.* 

Other splendours followed the representation of the Arianna. 
On June 2nd there was a performance of Guarini’s comedy, the 
Idropica, interspersed, in the old fashion, with musical inter- 
ludes which were simply the pretext for a display of sumptuous 
scenery. Monteverdi had only composed the prologue, 
which Follino describes thus : TF 

‘““ After the guests were seated, a signal was sounded by 
trumpets at the back of the theatre. At the third blast the 
curtain disappeared as if by magic, revealing three clouds so 
skilfully made that they seemed natural. Below them, waves 
rolled and broke. A woman’s head slowly emerged. With 
measured movements, she arose, and, as the trumpet blasts 
died away, she landed on the banks of a smallisland. Then, 
accompanied by the orchestra, she sang a melody so touching, 
that all present were moved.” 

Follino’s account also tells us of another touching piece of 
music written by Monteverdi for this occasion. ‘The Ballo 
delle Ingrate expresses the same sadness. Doubtless, in this 
year of sorrow, his genius could express no other emotion but 
orief. | 
The Ballo delle Ingrate, performed on June 4th, 1608, is a 
highly important work, and it is astonishing that it should 
never have been the subject of attentive study by historians of 
music. It is, in fact, the only ballet alla francese that we 
possess in its entirety. There is no question that it was 

* See Note.72. Tt See Note 73. 


‘ARIANNA ’ 83 


produced under the influence of the new type of spectacle 
invented in France; moreover, Rinuccini’s son, in the preface 
to the complete works of his father, has credited him with 
having been the first to introduce into Italy the ballet de cour.* 

Before writing the Ballo delle Ingrate, Monteverdi had on 
several occasions composed ballets of this type. In a letter 
of December 1604 he is much occupied with a choreographic 
divertissement on the subject of Diana and Endymion. The 
Duke had restricted his commission to one entrée de ballet for 
the Stars which accompany the Moon, one ezirée for the 
Shepherds, Endymion’s friends, and an ensemble of Stars 
and Shepherds. For the moment, he is occupied with the 
ballet of the Stars only, and has just devised a scheme which 
seems to him ingenious and original. The exsembles, executed 
to a brief lively tune played by all the instruments, are to 
alternate with pas de deux danced to an air played by five 
viole da braccio. ‘Thus all the Stars are to dance in pairs 
successively, and the resumption of the exsemble between the 
figures will avoid monotony. 

The plan of the Ballo delle Ingrate is different. For that 
matter, it bears a close resemblance to the principal ballets 
which were being performed at the court of Henry 1V—the 
Ballet d’Alcine, for example, given in 1609.f But in the 
Ballo delle Ingrate the opening Récit is replaced by a long scene 
in recitative which outlines the subject of the ballet, and the 
scenery bears witness to the high degree of perfection to which 
Italian scenic artists had attained for some years past. When 
the curtain rose, the formidable jaws of Hell were revealed, 
lighted from within by glowing vapours. In the foreground 
of the stage, which was connected with the auditorium by 
inclined platforms, were Venus, Eros and Pluto, who carried 
on a dialogue in recitative. Pluto agreed to allow the 
Ingrate to come back to Earth for a few moments, so that the 


* See Note 74. t See Note 75. 


8 4. THE DRAMATIGTSBEC TACEE- 


ladies of the company, who might be guilty of like cruelty, 
might be warned by their example. 

Then the unhappy souls advanced through the flames of 
Hell in pairs, keepingtime to the music. They were represented 
by eight women-dancers, and eight men dressed as women 
wearing frightful masks. They descended into the auditorium 
and began to dance a ballet which comprised various figures, 
all of which were performed in the French way to a single 
melodic theme. 

The Entrée, properly speaking, was composed of a very 
simple theme in common time. 


EXAMPLE 26 





The souls of the unfortunate entered to this theme fre- 
quently repeated, “ advancing with slow and natural steps.” 
Having arrived in the auditorium, they began to dance to the 
same air. When the first figure was terminated the violins 
changed the rhythm. 


EXAMPLE 27 





The third figure was danced to common time, and the 
fourth in 6/4. 


EXAMPLE 28 





In the fifth movement, the theme was partly inverted. 





‘ARIANNA’ 85 


EXAMPLE 29 





The sixth and last consisted in a repetition of the original 


theme slightly modified. 


EXAMPLE 30 





This was the French manner of dancing a ballet; it 
explains why the music of a ballet, the performance of which, 
according to contemporary records, took up several hours, 
occupies only a few pages in Philidor’s copies. Only the 
theme of the Exztrée was set down, but no account was taken of 
the many rhythmic variations which were introduced at great 
length by the twenty-four violins. 

Plastically speaking, this ballet, in conformity with the 
French style, belonged as much to pantomime as to the 
dance properly speaking. ‘The Jngrate, by mimicry and 
attitude, continually expressed the idea of profound despair. 

After the ballet, Pluto sang a long narration divided into 
five stanzas by the repetition of a ritorne//o in three parts on 
the theme of the dance. He exhorted the ladies to show 
compassion, threatening them with Hell if they continued to 
show themselves izgrate. ‘To depict this gloomy region, his 
voice took on a sinister tone, with a descending g/issando of an 
eleventh on the words /4 giz (beneath the earth). 


EXAMPLE 31 








{UL (iS ney re 
a JD tal Sets a Pir ST RTS} Ge Se ee ES Be 
Rie Se FES EE Ss OS 
fae SS ESS ER ee 








86 THE “DRAMATIC SPEC TACIT: 


Then he commanded the Jzgrate to return to their sombre 
dwelling. They then danced the second part of the Ballet to 
the same air as before, and, returning to the stage, disappeared 
with gestures of distress into the flaming jaws of Hell. 

The procession was closed by a single /ugrata. Just as she 
was about to disappear, she turned, and bade a touching fare- 
well to the light; for a moment her voice was heard with that 
of her companions, exhorting ladies, young and old, to com- 
passion. This lament, sung by Virginia Andreini, who had 
previously interpreted the rdéle of Ariadne, contributed greatly 
to Monteverdi’s renown. It is the most interesting passage 
of the work. It is poignantly expressive, and, for dramatic 
intensity, may be compared with Ariadne’s lament, or the 
scene of Orpheus’ despair. The preceding dialogues and 
narrations bear traces of haste. Monteverdi was exhausted 
and cannot have been profoundly inspired by all this conven- 
tional court language, devoid as it is of any human feeling. 
Certain imitative passages are to be noted, for they anticipate 
the Combattimento ; for example, this fragment which represents 
the battle. pa 


EXAMPLE 32 





It is equally interesting to note the attention to thematic 
uniformity which leads Monteverdi to compose all the ritornelii 
and sinfonie of his score on the same theme as the ballet itself. 








‘ARIANNA’ $7 


This preoccupation with thematic unity is still more pro- 
nounced in his religious compositions. 

Faithful to the system which he had adopted in the Orfeo, 
Monteverdi employed for the accompaniment of each 
of the dramatis persone the instruments corresponding best 
to the character. Venus sang “ to the sounds of very sweet 
instruments,” and Pluto must certainly have been accompanied 
here, as in the Orfeo, by the brass. The curtain rose to a 
long roll of ‘ discordant drums.” In the French fashion, the 
orchestra accompanying the voices was separate from the dance 
orchestra, and was hidden behind the stage, whilst the latter 
was on a platform in the auditorium. 


The strangers, who had flocked to Mantua from all parts 
of Italy, returned to their homes celebrating the magnificence of 
the Duke and the rare talent of his servants. In the autumn 
of the same year, 1608, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, in spite 
of his desire to eclipse the glory of Mantua, had to content 
himself with tournaments, ballets and naumachias. He 
was not able to produce a tragedy like the Arianna, of which the 
music was being sung everywhere. ‘The melodramma was no 
longer confined to Florence; it spread throughout the Penin- 
sula. First Florence, then Mantua had played their part, 
Rome and Venice were to come, but the spectacles performed 
in Florence in 1600 and in Mantua in 1608 lived long in the 
public memory. 


Ill 
MONTEVERDI AND THE GONZAGA FAMILY 


HencerortH, Monteverdi’s genius for dramatic music was 
universally recognized. The preface of one of his works 
recalls that Ariadne drew tears from thousands of spectators, 
and that Monteverdi thus revived the great marvels of ancient 
music.* His rivals pay him homage. Jacopo Peri, with 
the disinterestedness of the great artist, exalts his dramatic 
style, and Marco da Gagliano speaks with enthusiasm of the 
Arianna in the preface to Dafne. Yet Da Gagliano had had 
his triumph at Mantua. It is even possible that Monteverdi 
may have resented his success, and it would be quite compre- 
hensible that he should do so, for, while the whole of Italy was 
hailing the composer of the Lamento, the court of Mantua 
seems to have slightly neglected him. Perhaps his own 
sadness and gloom were partly responsible for this. After 
having worked night and day to crowd into five months the 
composition of the Arianna, the prologue of the Jdropica and 
the Ballo delle Ingrate, after having conducted the rehearsals 
and supervised the execution down to its smallest details, 
he had received a ridiculously small remuneration, while 
Marco da Gagliano, who, beyond two pastorals which he had 
composed before his arrival at Mantua, had only written a 
single interlude for the /dropica, had received an honorarium 
of 200 crowns. Monteverdi was hurt, and was perhaps, 
moreover, astonished at the increasingly close connection 
between the rulers of Mantua and the representatives 


* See Note 76. 
88 








AST eee ae ae ee ee tee ee 


THE GONZAGA FAMILY 89 


of the Florentine school. This was in point of fact the 
time when Marco da Gagliano was collaborating with the 
Cardinal Gonzaga and retouching his musical compositions, 
_ and when advances were being made to attract to Mantua 
Francesca, the daughter of Giulio Caccini, who was already 
celebrated as a composer. Monteverdi must have felt the 
court of Mantua guilty of base ingratitude towards him. 
Once the celebrations were over, he felt completely exhausted. 
He was a martyr to headache. After this effort, he felt 
himself in a state of complete moral and physical depression. 
He started for Cremona with his two young children, and, 
once at home, he declared to his father that he would not 
return to Mantua. The old doctor, much troubled by his 
son’s condition, and realizing that he was acquiring under 
the Gonzaga much honour but little wealth, approved his 
decision, and undertook to write to the Duke to beg him either 
to release Claudio, or to restrict his functions to those of 
Maestro di Cappella only. ‘The Duke did not reply, but 
Chieppio, the Secretary of State, wrote a friendly letter to 
persuade the musician to resume his duties. This letter 
crossed the one which Baldassare Monteverdi wrote to the 
Duchess begging her to use her influence. His son, he says, 
is ill, he cannot stand the air of Mantua; old man as he 1s, he 
does not know what would become of him if his son were to 
die leaving him two little children to bring up. The Duke’s 
service is too onerous; he himself has often had to come to 
his son’s assistance, more particularly during the journeys in 
Hungary and Flanders, during which he spent more than 500 
ducats to provide for the needs of Claudia and the children. 
Chieppio’s kind letter seems to have exasperated the 
musician, who must have been at this time in a state of morbid 
irritability. The long letter in which he replied, on November 
30th, has often been reproduced from Davari.* One can fee] 
= See Note 77. 


90 THE DRAMATIC SPECTACLES 


that it has been written straight off at a sitting. He will not 
return to Mantua, he says, it would be the death of him. He 
is suffering from continual headache and from an inflammation 
which medicine is powerless to cure. Drugs are of no avail. 
The Duke did him the honour to take him to Hungary; he 
still feels financially the effect of the journey, as of that to 
Flanders. The Duke has decided to raise his salary to 
25 crowns a month, but as he is to be obliged to provide for 
Campagnola the page, who has been entrusted to his care, 
that really only amounts to 20 crowns. The Duke did 
him the honour to invite his collaboration in the wedding 
celebrations; his only reward was fifteen hundred lines to 
set to music and a serious illness. He did not receive even 
a public expression of gratitude. The Duke promised him 
a pension of 100 crowns, but, after the wedding, only 
70 crowns were spoken of, and various deductions were 
made over and above. He enumerates all the great musicians 
who, before him, had made their fortune at the court: Orazio 
della Viola, Luca Marenzio, Filippo de Monte, Palestrina, 
Luzzaschi, Fiorini, Rovigo. He himself earns hardly 
enough to keep him with a single servant, and he has two 
children to provide for ! 

‘To give two hundred crowns to Marco da Gagliano,” he 
exclaims, “ who has done next to nothing, and nothing to me, 
who have done what I have done!’’ No, it is much better 
that he should not return to Mantua, where his fortune 1s as 
bad as his health, and he relies upon Chieppio to arrange 
matters and obtain his release. He concludes, of course, by 
a protestation of eternal gratitude to the house of Gonzaga. 

The nervous condition in which he was naturally led him 
to exaggerate somewhat. Of a highly susceptible tempera- 
ment, he could not adapt himself to the thousand servilities of 
court life. In 1604, because some rascally treasurer had 
made him wait for payment of his salary, he had addressed 





THE GONZAGA FAMILY gI 


to the Duke a violent letter, which had, however, the satis- 
factory result that he thenceforth received payment of his due 
with as much regularity as the disorderly service of the 
treasury permitted. 

In his letter he made no mention of several acts of liberality 
which the Duke had performed towards him, more particularly 
of the grant in 1604 of 1197 Mantuan lire to purchase an 
estate ora house. His complaints had their effect; the Duke 
ordered his return, but recognized the justice of his complaints 
by raising his salary to 300 crowns, and granting to him and 
his heirs a pension of 100 crowns of 6 Mantuan lire. 

1609 and 1610 were, for Monteverdi, years of comparative 
repose. He returned to the madrigal, wrote Le Lagrime 
ad’ Amante al sepolcro dell’ Amata to the memory of poor Cater- 
inuccia, composed various motets for the chapel, arranged the 
lament of Ariadne for five voices, and set to music Marini’s 
Complaint of Leander. He excelled in the composition of 
Laments, and continually received commissions for them. In the 
same year, the Orfeo was published at Venice, the publication 
having been supervised by his brother, Giulio Cesare. Monte- 
verdi passed the summer of 1609 at Cremona. ‘T'wo letters 
dated August 24th and September roth show that he is busy 
writing madrigals for the Duke, and there is no more talk of 
leaving his service. He is even troubled because one of his 
compatriots, Galeazzo Sirena,* requires the title of Maestro di 
Cappella as a condition of entering the service of the hereditary 
prince. ‘If God,” he writes, ‘‘ wills that I should survive 
the Duke, the Prince would thus have his Maestro di Cappella, 
and what could I do then but quit Mantua immediately. ” TF 

The post of Maestro di Cappella which Monteverdi had 
received after the death of Benedetto Pallavicini in 1601, 
carried with it a kind of superintendence of the Chamber and 
Chapel music. Illustrious composers had held it with honour 


* See Note 78. t See Note 79. 


92 THE DRAMATIC SPECTACLES 


in the past, and in one of his letters Monteverdi recalls with 
pleasure the names of his predecessors, Striggio, De Wert, 
Rovigo. 

The post was very absorbing. Monteverdi was ceaselessly 
occupied with rehearsals, and with the audition of singers 
who were offering their services to the Duke of Mantua. 
Before engaging them, he had to refer the matter to the Duke, 
giving him the most precise information respecting their 
qualities and defects. It is well worth while to note the 
minute details into which Monteverdi goes when giving his 
opinion upon the voice of a contralto to whom he has given a 
hearing. ‘The letter of June gth, 1610, for example, is a most 
precious document for the history of the technique of singing. 
When absent from Mantua, he received orders to bring back 
singers or instrumental performers. He found many recruits 
among his compatriots of Cremona, more particularly players 
of wind instruments.* 

Monteverdi was at the head of the Duke’s company of 
musicians, but he was seconded both in the Chamber and in 
the Chapel by eminent musicians such as G. Gastoldi, who 
since 1§82 had been choir-master of the ducal chapel of 
Santa Barbara. 

Enclosed by the enormous mass of the Palace buildings, 
Santa Barbara presented to the admiration of the courtiers its 
elegant Renaissance facade and its sumptuous marble facings 
which glittered when the light of the candles caught them. 
Two large galleries were erected facing each other for the 
musicians, so that the choruses could sing in dialogue in the 
way introduced to Venice by the Gabrieli. 

It seems that as long as Gastoldi was Maestro di Cappella at 
Santa Barbara, Monteverdi spent little time on the com- 
position of masses and motets for the religious ceremonies, 
and devoted himself particularly to secular music; but after 

* See Note 80. 





THE GONZAGA FAMILY 93 


Gastoldi’s departure in 1609 he eagerly took up this type of 
composition, which was new to him. In the spring of 1610 
he finished a mass to the Virgin * for six voices in strict poly- 
phonic style which marks an extraordinary contrast with the 
style of his madrigals of the same period. 

In the autumn of 1610 he went to Rome, with the intention 
of having his compositions published there, and of soliciting 
for his eldest son Francesco, then aged ten years, an entrance 
to the Roman seminary with a scholarship. Passing through 
Florence, he must have been interested in the serious disputes 
which divided the Academicians of the E/evati into two 
irreconcilable camps. ‘The poets Buonarotti and Cini had 
declared open warfare on the pompous (gonfiato) style of 
Chiabrera and Rinuccini, and were successful in keeping the 
latter out of the court fétes. Rinuccini, seeing that Jacopo 
Peri was not finishing the Narcisso which he had written for 
him, handed over a copy to Monteverdi.t He soon gave 
another copy to Loreto Vittori, however. Monteverdi was 
perhaps accompanied by Rinuccini when he resumed his 
journey to Rome. The letters he had with him for the 
Cardinal Borghese and the Cardinal di Montalto, and the 
protection of the Cardinal Gonzaga, opened every door to 
him, but did not succeed in obtaining for him the modest 
favours he had come to request. His mass and various 
motets were published in Venice, and he continued to petition 
the Papal court in vain through the intermediary of the Cardinal 
Gonzaga and the resident of Mantua. He had, however, the 
satisfaction of hearing some good music and some excellent 
singers. At the Palazzo della Cancelleria, the home of the 
Cardinal di Montalto, he heard the famous Ippolita Marotta, 
whose fame had spread throughout Italy. Monteverdi, 
though he admired her voice, preferred to her both Francesca 
Caccini, whom he had just heard in Florence, and who was 

* pee Note SI. + See Note 82. 


94 THE DRAMATIC SPECTACLES 


able to accompany herself on various instruments, and still 
more the renowned Adriana Basile, “ because she sings, plays, 
and speaks to perfection, and even when she is silent gives 
cause for admiration and well-deserved praise.” * 

Adriana Basile had arrived in Mantua after long and difficult 
negotiations on June 26th, 1610.— She was considered to 
be the finest singer and actress in Italy, and had been able, by 
the dignity of her life and by her intelligence, to awaken 
respect as well as admiration. She was treated as a lady of 
quality and the greatest princesses admitted her to their 
intimacy. Monteverdi had been enchanted with her the first 
time he had heard her. He found in her an incomparable 
interpreter. Adriana, who had sung his madrigals in the past, 
excelled herself in his compositions. She performed them 
at the concerts which Monteverdi arranged every week, by 
order of the Duke, in the Mirror Hall at the ducal palace. 
This hall, which was in reality a wide gallery, was the most 
sumptuous apartment in the palace. Its vaulted roof was 
adorned with frescoes and its walls were decorated with mirrors 
and precious stucco reliefs. It was here that the court 
assembled every Friday to hear the virtuost. The throng was 
so great at these meetings that Monteverdi was forced to 
insist that the Cardinal Gonzaga should have strict guard 
placed at the doors to avoid too great a crowd. 

The popular virtuosi, Madame Europa, Caterinuccia 
Martinelli, Settimia Caccini, and now Adriana Basile had 
in turn shone at these concerts. Madrigals for five voices 
were sung as arias in the new recitative style. The instru- 
ments united with the voices. Chitarroni, lutes, and other 
stringed instruments combined with the small positive organ 
(di legno) for the thorough-bass. Adriana was especially 
brilliant in recitative and often accompanied herself on the 
lute. It seems that she sang all the new music, arias by 

* See Note 83. t See Note 84. 


Potee pS a 


THE GONZAGA FAMILY 95 


Jacopo Peri, Caccini, Sigismondo d’India, and Monteverdi, 
who sometimes asked her to render compositions by the 
Cardinal Gonzaga, who was considered a good musician. 

Concerts of wind instruments were also given in the Mirror 
Hall, for the Duke kept an excellent band of cornetti, flutes, 
oboes, bassoons and trumpets,* which also performed with 
marvellous effect in the chapel of Santa Barbara on solemn 
occasions, and it is for them that Monteverdi wrote the 
magnificent Sonata sopra Sancta Maria, which 1s contained in 
the Collection of sacred music published in 1610, and in which 
wind instruments are felicitously combined with violins and 
viols.t 

We know little of the operatic performances which were 
given during these years. Chiabrera seems to have written 
various libretti for Mantua, but we have no reason to believe 
that they were performed. On February 16th, 1612, the old 
Duke Vincenzo died, and Francesco succeeded him. ‘This 
prince was still more debauched than his father, and his 
brief reign of a few months’ duration was marked by a series of 
follies. We do not know the exact circumstances of his 
quarrel with Monteverdi, whose surest ally he had been for 
years. It was perhaps on the occasion of a strange spectacle 
in the Florentine fashion entitled the Rape of the Sabine 
Women, in which the various phases of a tournament and 
equestrian display were commented upon by music and 
recitations. The féte given in honour of the election of a new 
Emperor took place on July 19th and 2oth, 1612. Ten 
days later, Monteverdi left the court of Mantua with an 
agreement of release in good form, and bearing in his pocket 
the total sum of his savings for twenty-three years of service— 
twenty-five crowns ! 

While Monteverdi had little cause to regret the Gonzagas, 
the Gonzagas soon regretted him. Francesco died on 

* See Note 85. tT See Note 86. 


96 THE DRAMATIC: SPECIAG Ee 


December 22nd, 1612, leaving the throne to his brother 
Ferdinando, who cheerfully renounced his Cardinalate to 
become Duke. Ferdinando had a profound and sincere 
admiration for Monteverdi; he made many attempts to get 
him into his service, and kept up with him, as we shall see, the 
most cordial relations. For that matter, Francesco himself 
had not been slow to realize his loss. It was perhaps in the 
hope of enticing Monteverdi back to Mantua that he ordered 
a performance of the 4rianua in the ducal theatre in September 
1612, two months after his departure. Monteverdi was 
thenin Milan. Envious people were circulating a rumour that 
he had gone there to request the post of Maestro di Cappella of 
the Duomo, but that he had met with a humiliating set-back. 
It was said that he could not maintain discipline among the 
musicians. ‘This was pure calumny, as the singer Campagnola 
informed the Duke, but it proves that the great musician had 
made powerful enemies at the court. 

After some months of retirement at Cremona with his 
family, during which he was probably in negotiations with 
various cities to obtain a situation worthy of a man of his 
genius and reputation, Monteverdi (on August 19th, 1613) 
was to his great joy, appointed Master of the Music of the 
Most Serene Republic of Venice. 


Ss ~ 


PART III 
MONTEVERDI AT VENICE, 1613-1643 


im 
ih 
+. ’ 
Mr 
Pils 
2 
S 





I 
PepeCcHArPEL OF SAN MARCO 


Wuen Monteverdi was nominated Maestro di Cappella of 
St. Mark’s at Venice, this church was renowned throughout 
Italy for its music. The Venetians were justifiably proud 
of it, and made the greatest sacrifices to maintain it in the 
state of splendour which it had attained under the direction 
of masters such as Adrian Willaert, Ciprian de Rore, and 
Zarlino. ‘The regulations demanded that the Maestro di 
Cappella should be a man of mature age, of worthy life, and 
of sober character. His musical attainments had to be 
such that he could inspire the respect of the artists who 
formed the Cappella, amongst whom there were not only 
singers of note, but talented composers. Before appointing 
a successor to the late Martinengo, the Procurators had 
written to the ambassadors and residents of the Republic at 
Rome, Milan and Mantua, to consult them as to the musician 
most capable of filling this exalted position. All three had 
named Monteverdi. On August 19th, 1613, Monteverdi 
was invited to Venice to give a trial concert, which was entirely 
successful.* ‘The Procurators were so satisfied with the trial 
that, of their own free will, they raised the salary of the post 
to 300 ducats, Martinengo having received only 200. There 
were many benefits accruing from the position, and the Maestro 
di Cappella was lodged in the Canons’ residence. A sum 
of 50 ducats was, moreover, immediately granted to Monte- 
verdi to cover the expenses of the journey which he had just 
undertaken to comply with the Procurators’ invitation. 


* See Note 87. 
79 


100 MONTEVERDI AT VENICE 


Monteverdi returned to Cremona, and then went on to 
Mantua to settle up all the business he had in that town, 
and to assure himself that the pension granted him by the 
late Duke would continue to be paid. He even had a quarter 
paid in advance to cover his travelling expenses. Yet another 
misfortune lay ahead. The roads were unsafe, and Monte- 
verdi set out for Venice in the company of the courier. He 
had with him his son Francesco, now fifteen years old, and 
a servant. Near Sanguanato, brigands surprised the little 
company, forced them with armed threats to surrender, 
and robbed them of all they possessed. The fact that the 
brigands left the courier unmolested made Monteverdi 
suspect him of connivance. Monteverdi lost more than 
100 ducats in this affair. The end of the journey was 
clouded by the incident, but he soon forgot it in the warmth 
of his welcome at Venice and in the material and moral 
satisfaction which he found in his new post. 

Monteverdi’s correspondence testifies to the change in his 
life. His letters from Mantua had been a long series of 
complaints and recriminations; he rebelled against his 
poverty, he was indignant that he was not properly paid. 
Proud and conscious of his genius as he was, he was con- 
tinually hurt by the Prince’s ungenerous dealings with him. 
At the court, they knew that they could rely on him, that 
he might grumble, but that he would not abandon his post, 
and therefore they considered it unnecessary to treat him 
with consideration. Money difficulties, family expenses, his 
wife’s illness, the undermining of his own health by the fever- 
laden air of Mantua, all this contributed to embitter his 
character and to make him profoundly unhappy. 

The letters written from Venice bear witness to the serenity 
of which his restless and unhappy nature was capable. He 
was housed with his sons in the Canonica like the canons. 
His residence was certainly diminutive; his own room was 


alate iy 


THE CHAPEL OF SAN MARCO IOI 


little larger than a monk’s cell, but profound calm reigned 
in this vast monastic building with its double cloisters.* He 
was only a few steps away from the church. Wandering 
along the canals or through the narrow streets, their gaiety 
and animation offered a delightful contrast with the gloomy 
stagnation of Mantua, where the entire activity of the city 
seemed concentrated in the court. The whole of Venice 
was in cheerful movement, with merchants busy at their 
stalls, displaying to foreign buyers the most sumptuous fabrics 
of the East, or holding up for their admiration glittering 
glass-ware or rich ornaments. The people seemed to work 
with joy. They felt and knew that they were free, for it 
was the nobles themselves who had voluntarily accepted the 
state of servitude in which they lived. To the stranger, 
surprised at the entire liberty which all enjoyed, the Venetian 
artizan proudly replied, “‘ This is Venice.” Save that he 
must take no hand in politics, and speak no ill of the Doge 
and the Ten, there was no restraint upon his liberty. 
Endowed with a truly Cremonese independence of spirit, 
Monteverdi delighted in this atmosphere of freedom which 
contrasted so strikingly with the servility of the Mantuans. 
And in Venice he breathed air which, though it could not 
equal that of Cremona, was none the less famous in Italy for 
its purity. He suffered no longer from the headaches caused 
by the marsh vapours. He felt better, morally and physically. 

He had suffered at Mantua, not because his talent was not 
recognized, for he was celebrated among the musicians, but 
because he was not treated with the respect to which his 
genius entitled him. At Venice, he was admired and beloved 
by all. Of their own free will, the Procurators raised his 
salary from time to time. ‘Three years later, his salary 
amounted to 400 ducats, double what his predecessors had 
received.t He received, moreover, various sums from private 


* See Note 88. T See Note go. 


102 MONTEVERDI AT VENICE 


persons, and from the superiors of convents where he directed 
the music. It was not wealth, for he had heavy expenses, 
but at least it was not poverty. He was able, though not 
without occasional difficulty, to meet the expenses of his sons’ 
education. Fearing for them the “ perilous liberty” of 
Venetian life, he had them and their tutor to live with him 
at the Canonica and supervised their studies. His obligations 
were not too severe. He was not even required to appear 
in chapel if he did not wish to. No one would reprimand 
him on that score. He reigned supreme over the personnel 
of the choir. No musician, no organist, no maestro could 
be appointed without his consent. Appeal was always made 
to him to settle differences between singers. He was 
free to suspend from their functions the musicians placed 
under his orders, and could grant or refuse leave which they 
asked.* 
The cathedral of St. Mark’s was placed under the perpetual 
superintendence of the Procurators. ‘The dignity of Pro- 
curatore di San Marco was, by reason of the prerogatives and 
privileges which it carried with it, “the highest object of 
the ambition of the Venetian nobility.” There were nine 
Procurators for life charged with the administration of the 
church and of the considerable domains belonging to it. 
Three of them, called Procuratori di sopra, took charge of 
everything which concerned the church. Housed in the 
magnificent new Procuratorie on the Piazzetta, they wore 
the ducal robe with its long sleeves sweeping to the ground. 
All the difficulties which arose in the administration of the 
church music were submitted to them, and there was no 
appeal against their decision. Monteverdi was also under 
the authority of the Primiciero as to the arrangement of the 
religious ceremonies. The Primiciero was a Venetian noble 


appointed to his high functions by the Doge. He was at 


* See Note go. 


MH RCIAPEIL OF SAN: MARCO 103 


the head of the twenty-six canons of the church, and officiated 
with mitre and crosier like a bishop. 

The religious ceremonies were remarkable for their 
splendour. During Holy Week, the ritual of the Alexandrian 
Church was followed. On Good Friday, the Holy Sacra- 
ment, enclosed in a black velvet casket, was carried in solemn 
procession round the Piazza, which was “lit by a million 
torches.” All the town guilds followed with their banners, 
and penitents “with pointed caps two feet high upon their 
heads, walking backwards before the Crucifix,” scourged 
themselves till the blood flowed.* 

At Christmas, mass was sung at six o’clock, not at mid- 
night. ‘The ceremony attracted an enormous crowd which 
overflowed on to the Piazza to hear the music sung by four 
choirs, according to the fashion adopted at the end of the 
sixteenth century. On solemn occasions, numerous instru- 
ments, cornetti, trombones, viols, accompanied the voices.t 

At the end of the basilica rose the musicians’ gallery, 
octagonal in shape and supported on nine columns.{ It 
was there that mass and vespers were sung on ordinary days, 
but on great festivals the singers were divided into several 
choirs. Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli had definitely intro- 
duced the use of numerous choirs which sang antiphonally, 
or in dialogue, or united in superb ensembles, while instru- 
ments played ritorne/ii or symphonies at intervals, or rein- 
forced the voices. It was only upon solemn occasions, 
however, that masses or motets were sung by several choirs 
with the assistance of the orchestra. For the ordinary 
services, mass was sung a cappella in strictly traditional 
fashion. ‘Two organs renowned for the beauty of their 
tone were situated opposite each other in the transepts. The 
first, manufactured by Brother Urbano of Venice, dated 
from 1490; the other, more modern, was smaller, but the 


* See Note gI. t See Note 92. t See Note 93. § See Note 94. 


104 MONTEVERDI AT VENICE 


suavity of its tone was admirable.* It had been decorated 
with shutters painted by Giovanni Bellini. It was on this 
organ that the famous and universally regretted Giovanni 
Gabrieli had performed. 

Up to the present, the list of names of the musicians of 
St. Mark’s has not been found, and the only information 
available is that given in the proceedings of the Procurators’ 
meetings. Monteverdi, on taking up his post, found the 
post of Vice-Maestro occupied by a composer of talent, Marc 
Antonio Negri, composer of Psalms and of delightful secular 
two-part compositions in the Roman style entitled Affett 
Amorosi.t In 1620, Monteverdi appointed to succeed him 
Alessandro Grandi, the singing-master of the ducal seminary, 
pupil of the famous Giovanni Gabrieli, himself a composer of 
genius whose name belongs more particularly to the history 
of religious music and of the cantata. In 1627, Grandi left 
St. Mark’s to take up the position of Maestro di Cappella at 
the Duomo of Bergamo, where he died of plague three years 
later. He was succeeded by G. Rovetta, who had been a 
singer in the chapel since 1683. Monteverdi was therefore 
ably seconded. He could, if need be, go to Bologna, Parma, 
Mantua, Cremona without any anxiety. The personnel of 
the chapel comprised, besides the Master, the Vice-Master 
and the two organists,{ some thirty singers and about twenty- 
five instrumental performers.§ 

When Monteverdi was appointed Maestro di Cappella it 
seems that traditional church-singing was entirely neglected. 
The fashion for solo-singing, and the rapid decline of music 
a cappella, had led to the complete abandonment of polyphonic 
singing. Caberlotti tells us that the musical direction of the 
chapel was in a state of complete disorder. Indeed, a glance 
through the record of the Procuratorial proceedings for this 
period shows that the return to the traditional practice was 

* See Note 95. — + See Note 96. t See Note 97. § See Note 98. 


THE CHAPEL OF SAN MARCO 105 


periodically recommended. Monteverdi probably received 
the same recommendation when he took up office, and we 


. know through Caberlotti that he succeeded in restoring sing- 


ine a cappella to all its ancient glory, having recourse rather 
ng ee gory 8 


\ to persuasion and example than to the authority to which his 


office entitled him.* 

_ Yet the singers who formed the choir were by no means 
easy to keep in order. ‘They had, with the consent of the 
Procurator, formed an association, and stubbornly defended 
their privileges.—| The Vice-Maestro, Marc Antonio Negri, 
had unpleasant proof of this in 1613. He claimed the right 
of conducting the choir even when they performed in churches 
other than St. Mark’s. After prolonged discussion, the 
Procurators and the Doge decided for the singers. They 
were obliged to recognize the authority of Marc Antonio 
Negri in the church of St. Mark, but once outside the church 
he was their equal. On May 3oth, 1612, they had elected 
as their Chief Canon Gaspare Locatello, author of villanellas 
and madrigals, who obstinately maintained the prerogatives 
of the association. From time to time, doubtless with the 
object of keeping them better in hand, they were forbidden 
to sing in other churches,t but these orders were never 
enforced. 

The majority of the singers played various instruments ; 
viols (soprano, alto, tenor, bass and double bass), violins and 
bass violins, cornetti, trombones, flutes. ‘They alternately 
sang and played in the orchestra, though naturally at great 
festivals instrumental performers approved by the Procurators 
were called upon to complete the orchestra. 

The Guild of Minstrels and Players, whose patron saint 
was San Silvestro, claimed that they had the right to force 
such musicians of St. Mark’s as practised instrumental music 
to inscribe themselves upon their register and to pay their 

* See Note gg. Tt See Note Ioo. t See Note Ior. 


106 MONTEVERDI AT VENICE 


dues. The result was countless lawsuits. Finally, acting 
upon the Procurators’ report, the Doge intervened and 
expressly forbade the Minstrels to exercise any claim upon 
the singers of St. Mark, who came under his authority only. 
The singers were authorized to play various instruments in 
churches and other places, and to give lessons in their schools 
or at private residences. ‘They were forbidden only to 
accept engagements for balls at public or private celebrations.* 
Twenty years later the Minstrels returned to the charge, and 
attempted, though unsuccessfully, to enrol in their association 
the organists of St. Mark’s.T 

Certain of the singers were exceedingly difficult to get on 
with, and continually made trouble. There are, in par- 
ticular, in the records of the secretariat, references to accusa- 
tions and complaints by one Domenico Aldegati.t This 
singer, conceiving that he had been injured by Claudio 
Monteverdi, had the insolence to stop him in the Piazza and 
pull his beard. Monteverdi, who must have already been 
ordained at the time, is careful to specify that he claims 
punishment for the insult, not as priest, but as Maestro di 
Cappella. Aldegati was properly chastised by the Pro- 
curators.§ 

This scandalous incident was an event in Monteverdi's 
life, for, as a general rule, the singers showed him the pro- 
foundest respect. He never had disputes with them, such 
as his predecessor Martinengo had constantly had, and we 
shall see how sincerely he was regretted and mourned by the 
singers placed under his orders. 

Monteverdi devoted himself entirely to his duties, and 
never ceased to exercise them with energy. He applied 
himself to replacing the old singers by younger men. He 
discovered such men as Francesco Cavalli or Giovanni 
Rovetta; he recognized the talent of Alessandro Grandi 


* See Note 102, t+ See Note 103. tf See Note 104. § See Note 105. 


eet 2 eee oe 





THE CHAPEL OF SAN MARCO 107 


whom he made his second in command. He maintained 
strict discipline in the church, requiring the attendance of 
the musicians at all rehearsals and performances. He con- 
siderably extended the musical library, procuring the works 
which seemed to him worthy to figure in the repertory of 
the Maitrise.* 

Theoretically, he was by the terms of his appointment 
obliged to teach figured song, counterpoint and choral singing 
not only to the choir-boys, but also to the pupils of the 
seminary. Actually, it was the Vice-Maesiro and the singing- 
master of the seminary who performed this thankless task +; 
but Monteverdi took his pedagogic duties seriously and 
interested himself personally in any talented pupil. He was 
truly a maestro in the complete sense of the word. 

In addition to the duties of his office, he accepted a series 
of well-paid engagements. He gave regular concerts three 
times a week at the house of the Dean of the Chapter, the 
Primiciero. on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, which 
were attended by ‘‘half the aristocracy of Venice” §; he 
directed the private chapels of several Venetian nobles. We 
shall have to consider later his secular occupations, and we 
shall see how absorbing they were, particularly towards the 
end of his life. In fact, it is a wonder that he had any time 
for composition, yet his creative activity was at no period 
of his life at a higher pitch than in Venice. For St. Mark’s, 
he continually composed music a cappella in contrapuntal 
style, and formal music with orchestra for the great festivals. 
He was, moreover, regularly asked by Venetian noblemen, by 
the governors of religious institutions, and by superiors of 
monasteries to compose masses for their chapels. We 
know by one of his letters that he earned more than 200 
ducats a year in this way, and that he constantly received 
marks of gratitude and admiration. 

* See Note 106. t See Note 107. t See Note 108. § See Note 109. 


108 MONTEVERDI AT VENICE 


It is only by reading his correspondence that it is possible 
to realize how busy he was. He was ceaselessly occupied in 
composing sacred or secular music for Venice and for foreign 
courts. One day, for example, having performed chamber- 
music at the English Ambassador’s house all the afternoon, he 
had to go on to the Carmine for the festival of the Madonna 
del Abito, and conduct Vespers there till late at night.* In 
March 1625 he states that he is much occupied with both 
sacred and secular music for the King of Poland. 

With remarkable ease, he managed to do it all, and found 
time to write secular compositions for public and private 
festivals, operas for foreign courts, or Venetian theatres, 
cantatas, madrigals, arias, songs, which were sung through- 
out Italy. During the thirty years spent in Venice he pro- 
duced a prodigious quantity of music which has mostly 
disappeared. What is left bears witness to the inexhaustible 
fecundity and variety of his genius. 


* See Note IIo. 


al) etl = . 


Te eee ee ee ee ee ee ee eS a eee 





II 
MONTEVERDIS SACRED MUSIC 


Witu the exception of M. Charles van den Borren’s brief 
but pregnant preface to the edition of the Missa a 4 da Cap- 
pella, no general study of Monteverdi’s sacred music has 
yet been made. The task is difficult, for three-quarters of 
such compositions as have survived are still unpublished 
and scattered throughout the libraries of Europe. Some- 
times one part 1s to be found in Bologna, another in Breslau, 
another in London or Paris. ‘These parts would have to be 
copied or photographed if the whole score were to be restored 
I shall restrict myself to defining the characteristics of Monte- 
verdi’s sacred music as exemplified by the works which | 
have been able to consult at first hand. 

Monteverdi’s religious compositions can be divided into 
two groups, those written in the traditional polyphonic style, 
and those composed in concerted style. He seems to have 
practised both styles with perfect freedom, in spite of the 
fact that they are different and even antagonistic. Nothing 
authorizes one to believe that a mass such as the Missa da 
Cappella is anterior to the highly dramatic motets with instru- 
ments which subsequently formed part of the Selva Morale 
in 1641. Not only does Monteverdi in the more important 
of his religious works refrain from those audacities of harmony 
which characterize his madrigals and lyric dramas, but he 
surpasses all the purists of the epoch. He uses a style of 
archaic austerity. 

His attitude is all the more surprising in view of the fact 
that the innovators were then concentrating upon introducing 

109 


IIO MONTEVERDI AT VENICE 


into. church music the methods of monody and the use of 
concerted instruments. Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli had, 
moreover, opened the way by substituting for the intimate 
expression of a profound religious sentiment the pursuit of 
decorative effect, the continual interpretation of the text. 
The madrigal had first invaded church music, and rendered 
every licence possible. Composers were seeking to strike 
the imagination and the senses by the powerful tone-effects 
produced by choral masses in dialogue. ‘The Roman school, 
though profoundly conservative, was influenced by this new 
musical ideal, and the school descended from Palestrina 
finally produced gigantic constructions such as the mass of 
Orazio Benevoli, with its fifty-three vocal and instrumental 
parts. Monteverdi was surrounded by composers writing 
in the new concerted style, amongst others, his colleague at 
Mantua, G. Gastoldi, Maestro di Cappella of Santa Barbara. 
In his masses and motets, Gastoldi distributes the voices 
into two choirs which carry on a dialogue in broad vertical 
chords. ‘There is nothing less polyphonic than this style. 
For that matter, the style of Monteverdi’s master, Ingegneri, 
is harmonic rather than contrapuntal, and Monteverdi notes 
with approval that he always had regard to the intelligibility 
of the text, which is destroyed when the voices are engaged in 
inextricable contrapuntal patterns. 

Finally, it must not be forgotten that Monteverdi had been 
for several years in Mantua in touch with the celebrated 
Grossi da Viadana, who was one of the musicians who con- 
tributed most to introduce the recitative and concerted style 
into church music. As early as 1602, in his Concerti Ecclesi- 
astict Viadana had given very successful examples of motets 
in recitative style for one, two, three or four voices, accom- 
panied by the asso continuo on the organ. Viadana’s principal 
object was to simplify the task of the organist, who frequently 
had only two or three singers to perform a motet for four or 


' 
\ 
; 
D 





SACRED MUSIC a 


five voices and was obliged to reduce the other parts at sight 
for the organ, but the introduction of the Florentine system 
of the basso continuo brought about the ruin of the polyphonic 
style. Vertical harmonies replace the interwoven designs 
of counterpoint, and a clearly defined melody is heard above 
the discreet chords of the organ. 

We shall see that Monteverdi did not disdain these innova- 
tions, and gave brilliant examples of the concerted style in 
his church music but it is astonishing that he should at the 
same time have written masses and motets in a disconcertingly 
archaic and contrapuntal style. 

_ Why, then, did Monteverdi show himself so conservative 
in his church music? Why did he, who had propagated with 
such zeal the zuova prattica, feel obliged to conform to obsolete 
methods of composition which contemporary musicians were 
abandoning? We have seen that, from the moment of his 
arrival in Venice, he had endeavoured to restore church 
music to the polyphonic tradition which had already fallen 
into disuse. Doubtless he was complying with the desire 
of the Procurators, who stubbornly held to traditional methods, 
but it is possible that he was glad of the opportunity of giving 
public proof that, in spite of Canon Artusi, he was capable 
of writing a mass or a motet in the strictest style, and that 
the liberties he allowed himself in his secular compositions 
were due not to his ignorance of the technique of counterpoint, 
but to a new sense of the expressive power of harmony. 

It must be noticed that Monteverdi had given evidence of 
his talent for religious music both in contrapuntal and in 
concerted style before leaving Mantua. His first religious 
works are written indifferently in the one or the other, but 
the severe style predominates. In this, Monteverdi doubt- 
less conformed to Lombard custom and taste. It 1s remark- 
able that the beautiful religious compositions of his compatriot 
Costanzo Porta show the same regard for the archaic style. 


LT2 MONTEVERDI AT VENICE 


The pupils of Palestrina, Anerio, Nanini, Giovannelli, also 
remained faithful to the polyphonic tradition. But the 
austerity of Monteverdi surpasses theirs. He took infinite 
pains over the composition of the mass included in his first 
collection. Bernardo Casola testifies to this: ‘‘ Monteverdi,” 
he writes on July 16th, 1610, “is at present engaged upon 
the composition of a mass for six voices which gives him 
great difficulty and much labour, for he has set himself to 
introduce all possible contrapuntal combinations, weaving 
together in ever-increasing stretto the eight fugal themes 
contained in Gombert’s motet Jn illo tempore.” * 

The mass Jz illo tempore, to which Bernardo Casola here 
alludes, written by Monteverdi in 1610, is contained in the 
collection dedicated to Pope Paul V under the title: Sanctis- 
simae Virgini Missa senis vocibus ac Vesperae pluribus de 
cantandae con nonnullis sacris concentibus. It is composed 
according to the old practice on the melody of a motet by 
Gombert divided into ten motives which are used singly or 
in combination. 


EXAMPLE 33 





These musical motives are treated in the various parts in 
strict imitation. In the Crucifixus for four voices, for example, 
the tenor, alternating with the alto, twice gives out the theme 
of Gombert’s motet, while the superius and the sextus sing in 
imitation a melody consisting of a variation of another motive 


* See Note III. 





SACRED MUSIC 113 


from the same motet. This style is a pure anachronism, and 
it is difficult to conceive that this passage, which is of great 
beauty, was composed in 1610, and not a century earlier. 


EXAMPLE 34 





Saperius 
oc) i eid Ee 2 Cee. Raa eee ees eee ee 
“gs Se 2 SS) il i a ae 2 2 rn ce oe Ae ¢@ 
Ju." ©" oJ te) SSS (is SS) i CR Ee 0 ee ee ee RS 
OE a Se SE SUR GM SS SS GE PE 2 SE EE Se EE TED 
Cri ci==- =f -xuSs e- + ti-- am pro-no - - -==----=- bis 
- P a= 

i} Se eee (RRS SS BS AES BERS OO a ER FS "TS 
S227) eee... _SaeeS EWS a eee ed Ge a 2 Ce eee ee 
ino, | Dae aa Rie eae RE Re TF RG REE beer ee SD 

ie Se el eee 


a2 
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at 

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& 


Leh! 
| 


y 
a 
A 
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| 
q 
| 
| 
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4a 


NS 
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: 
il 
il 
| il 
a1 | 
ll | 
Ath 
hl 


sub Pon - - tio 


= 
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4 
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t 
t] 


a 
| 
ih 


i 
} 


























The archaic effect is still further augmented by the fact 
that several passages of this mass are written in the ancient 
ecclesiastical modes, and are only very slightly influenced by 
modern tonalities. ‘The entire opening of this Crucifixus, 
for example, is composed in the authentic mixolydian mode, 
sufficiently rare even in Palestrina’s time, the majority of 
musicians, as Glareanus remarks, sharpening the F. 

The Christe eleison, composed on the fourth theme of 
Gombert’s motet, is, in its austerity, a passage of genuine 


grandeur, moving yet unpretentious. Master of dramatic 
I 


114 MONTEVERDI AT VENICE 


music as Monteverdi is, he here intentionally abstains from 
any theatrical effect, and interprets the liturgic text as Josquin 
Deprés himself might have done. 


EXAMPLE 35 








é Altus 
































If the author of this mass were unknown, one would be 
tempted to attribute it to some composer of the Roman 
school, contemporary with Palestrina. The basso seguente is 
the only sign that the work is posterior to 1607, for it was in 
that year that Adriano Banchieri used it, apparently for the 
first time, in his Ecclestastiche Sinfonie dette canzoni in Aria 
francese per sonare et cantare et sopra un Basso seguente con- 
certare con l’organo. We know that the basso seguente, which 
must not be confused with the Jasso continuo,* was not neces- 
sarily intended as an organ accompaniment to the voices, 
but served the Maestro di Cappella as a kind of guide to 
direct the voices and regulate their entries. 

Taken as a whole, the mass Jm i//o tempore is a work com- 
posed in view of a cappella performance, without the inter- 
vention of any instrument. With the exception of the 
Crucifixus, which is for nine voices, the mass is written for 
six voices. It bears no trace of the Venetian influences one 
would have expected to find in it, but is obviously related to 
the Romano-Lombardian school. Its archaic style, its 
scholastic processes of development and imitation, recall the 
early masses of Palestrina, and it is quite possible that Monte- 


* See Note 112. 


a ee ee ee ee eS ie ee ee Pe ee ee ee a 








ee ee ee ee, ee oe 


SACRED MUSIC rie 


verdi may have taken these masses as his model in attacking 
a genre which was, after all, new to him. 

The Missa a 4 da Cappella, published in 1641 in the 
Selva Morale e Spirituale, and republished by Tirabossi and 
Van den Borren, 1s rather different from the Ju illo tempore. 
While Monteverdi persists in his ascetic archaism, while he 
avoids dramatic and immediate expression, while he is careful 
not to employ the harmonic style which is habitual in his 
secular compositions, he betrays himself in certain methods 
of composition somewhat unusual in sacred music, more 
particularly in the systematic use of sequences. As Van 
den Borren very rightly remarks, he also manifests “ that 
sense of development by gradation of expression which is 
one of the essential characteristics of his genius.”” On the 
other hand, there is no trace in this work of the ancient 
ecclesiastical modes. ‘The tonal plan is perfectly clear. The 
work is written in F major, with modulations to the dominant 
and the relative minor. 

The frequent cadences on the dominant still further 
accentuate the tonal character of the work. Van den Borren 
quotes a few examples of dissonances which have escaped 
Monteverdi, but they are exceptional, and the counterpoint 
is quite traditional. The only dissonances which Monteverdi 
allows himself are those resulting from retardation, or from 
appoggiaturas, as was the practice of the masters of the 
sixteenth century. 

The construction of the work reveals that logical, syste- 
matic spirit which inspires everything Monteverdi wrote. 
He no longer uses the various musical motives of an anterior 
motet upon which to construct this work, as in the mass of 
1610, but a very short and simple theme of six notes: 


EXAMPLE 36 


(ae 


116 MONTEVERDI AT VENICE 


which he varies and develops by every scholastic process 
imaginable. He inverts it, decorates it, varies it by muta- 
tion, augmentation and diminution, changes its rhythm. 
“In fact”? remarks Van den Borren, “ therewas@ ine 
save the cadences, and two or three passages of a few bars 
which eludes the tyranny of the thematic unity.” 

From beginning to end the work is treated in very vigorous 
imitation. ‘There is little homophony, but when it appears, 
especially in the Jucarnatus est, the Gratias, the Resurrextt, 
it produces the most magnificent effect. ‘These passages 
recall the fine successions of chords which are to be found 
in the work of Monteverdi’s master, Ingegneri. As a whole, 
‘the work is inspired with sincere and profound feeling. It 
breathes tenderness and mystic love. 

The Missa a 4, published at Venice in 1650, seven years 
after _Monteverdi’s death, differs little from the preceding 
Masses. It is archaic in character, and is written throughout 
in very strict imitation. It was printed, like the others, 
with a basso seguente. | 

The opening of the Kyrie will suffice to show the severity 
of its counterpoint. 


EXAMPLE 37 














2 a¢ SORE BSS Ne nn ee ae ee es Tae | 

¥ ol () 2 BES 1 EES e G7. SIE ew SR © WEE Be A SS AY ee 

RT Af ___| — pe 
ET EAE TERE) RIEL APES ISS a By Se ee 
C. : : 

Ky -- - rie-e - - - - lei ar ey ck eS 
> A eT ne RE SE GREE EEEA mERENOREENTEET ETE! (Se 
0 2 We () _  _ __ CE .. TENSE TENSE PS VE Te 
(on 28 EE ER SEE GEE HIST! 
ND) SE DS SE EL STRESS ERNE, Po 

A 
7. | ee OE ey yp © Rees Ser Ge 
ad anes, EE OT LE EES VR GEE & ETE MS TS ee 
A A Ee LO: jRcuREEEae GuinwmETEEM SSS 
T..° Ky --rieve + ld 2-2 ee son Ky-ri-e e -lei - 
ve Ue ee EE RE SORA TE PS 
4 COREY) Re eS OE I SE SY RE SET so. Pre REST es 
DP ae. Eee EE CSSD RE PGMS LL 
A LTT A STIS CSL TD RL TIIES ESS TIE SATIATION 
B. 
2 ie & eal ——5—> 
SPP TS RENEE Oe of EEE EL, ELE LEAR LAL, WOT OLDS LT 2 
bell OE BY 0) DRESSES SOR © FE Cee eS SG = A EE 3 EE, WF EEE NE 0 PPB COTS SEE 0 BE 
44) REE NS at. kee SS Ts Sy RSS Le Oe 9 Ce Beet (Se * 








ee eee ee 


SACRED MUSIC 117 








BTSs (SS (A ee (ae ee de ee ee Ee 
oS a = asi ating Je} th aa ik } 
—— 








eye = eae Sa Pea PTS BEDS ASS EE HP’ SBS KOE DIS 
> ck Ut STDS been, (eS RE — Saree 
ee son Ky-ri-e GUS SS 6S SS ae 
“lun 7 UFO ND (i? <2 ae ER ER Ee RT eee MO GT RE ee Pee 
ES i SLs {SS = Seeks De ae SE 2 Ee OP Oe ee Gs Se) Ge Tee ee ee eee OS Ee 
(Lo \ “) SU SUR ER en Ia ee Ge eee ee ee ee ee ee eee ee 
ja a Gh ee 
yri-e Ce lelvateme ee ne ere eae eee 
OO) UE Gh SS GL ee a Ln ee ae ee (ee ee 2 en eee ee eee ee 
O° {ype i [ES 9 120 i eS Ee 2 BE Be Ee 2 ee ee ee ee Ee ee 
SR ee gt Ce ek) Lee * Mie ESS SF [CEE SEI SSE ES SRO a 
DDS Se ie Se  E -_aee  aa Be' A CEE Te, (ee ERE ee SSS ae 
2 et Page, Se aa son Ry «tte €-leiy- = - i 5 ---'- = son 
eo) fl es Ss 2S 0 eS SKS PSE 0) Le _ Ee 
Rai 8 8 ee eee iA SSL eS ae _ 
Coe i 5.) STE LJ 4) ChE Cae 2 ae Le ae ee DR a ee eee 
So i SS a Se Doe Cae 9 eS eS ae Ee en Ee Bee See Ee 
RoR HEGEL A = =~ wn 3 me 8 son 

C1 BM ie ae eS CS ad 0) es Ce eS es Ea 
| pel e jf 4 ge Pe ee phd Se ee 
1 CLES TUN Ness ES ae OE; el BE ea 2.42 [LOS EL ES a (ES ES Se SS Se ees 

a te 


Yet it must not be thought that all Monteverdi’s religious 
works are written in this archaic style. We know from con- 
temporary evidence that he had composed masses of quite a 
different nature, one in particular, dated 1631, to celebrate 
the end of the plague, in which “ trombe squarciate’’ accom- 
panied the voices in the Gloria and the Credo, producing 
“exquisite and marvellous harmony.” * 

What is still stranger is that the mass of the Se/va Morale 
bears a note authorizing the substitution for the Crucifixus, 
the Et resurrexit and the Et iterum of three pieces printed in 
the same book, and composed in a totally different style. 
Not only have the melodic themes no relation to that running 
through the whole mass, but the style is concertato. It 1s 
the style of the cantata, and is no longer Palestrinian. ‘The 
ease with which Monteverdi passes from one style to the 
other is astounding, It is simple to attribute this to a con- 
cession to contemporary taste, but the question is, Was this 
concession made when Monteverdi was writing in the popular 
style, or in scholastic polyphony? In point of fact, Monte- 
verdi’s technical skill was marvellous; he Was versed in all - 
the subtleties of his art. When he had to write a mass or 
a motet for the great public religious ceremonies which were 


* See Note 113. 


118 MONTEVERDI AT VENICE 


frequent in Venice, he wrote in the concertato style, but when 
he had to write a mass for some strictly liturgical service, 
he contrived to write in the style of the old masters, and 
used the occasion to display his marvellous dexterity. A 
glance through the Motets, Psalms, Magnificats, or frag- 
ments of his masses which are still extant leaves no room for 
doubt that he practised the two styles with equal facility. 
It is difficult to understand how a man could write works so 
different in character. Nor can it be said that Monteverdi 
betrays any preference in the matter, for during his lifetime 
he had works of both styles printed in the same collections. 

The collection of 1610, dedicated to the Pope, contained, 
in addition to the mass Jz illo tempore, motets of very varied 
style. There are no traces of Venetian influences in the 
mass, which is conceived in the spirit of the old Flemish 
masters. But such traces are to be seen in several of the 
sacri concentus which follow. ‘The concertato style popularized 
by Gabrieli may be recognized here, but it has been strangely 
perfected by Monteverdi. In these works there is to be 
found, in M. André Pirro’s happy phrase, “‘ the gravity of 
ancient polyphony combined with the inventions of the 
opera.” * 

Here, for example, are the vespers: Vespero da concerto 
composto sopra canti fermi for six voices and six instruments. 
They are typical of the music performed at St. Mark’s dur- 
ing magnificent ceremonies. ‘The music is sumptuous and 
brilliant. While the voices are occupied merely with a 
rhythmic plain-song, harmonized for six voices, the instru- 
ments, cornetti, viole da braccio, trombones and viole da gamba 
disport themselves with the most secular gaiety. In point 
of fact, Monteverdi here uses the triumphal theme of the 
symphony which preceded the rise of the curtain at the 
performances of the Orfeo. 


* See Note 114. 


PRT. ee 


ee ee ee ee TE Ae ee ae, Ce ee eS 





119 


EXAMPLE 38 


SACRED MUSIC 


INSTRUMENTALI 


He | | LT 
Ty a! | 


f\ Cantus 
lll 
F oy @ WK EET Al OA 
er 6 
NF ee 
Sextus 
(fo GEE AEE OT 
aw 


i | 
eT 
: | 


Voces — 


BH eee Peet ene 


i 
in 


Fel: 


acee 


a 
_ eee iS a See RE Fe — ——— 


There is the same contrast 


between the Gregorian psalmody and the quite secular style 


of the 


fes--------ti------na 


Ba! ae aS SS SSS SSeS eae Sey es 


me 


near 
aaa 
) i” 


The psalm, Dixit Dominus, for six voices and six instru- 


- yan - - dum 
ments, is in the same style. 


instrumental score. 


Monteverdi, moreover, takes 


liberties with the plainsong, and sometimes terminates a 


h fiorituri. 


Insong verse wit 


pla 


120 MONTEVERDI AT VENICE 


EXAMPLE 39 





Plainsong verses alternate with verses treated in figured 
style. After each verse the instruments play a brief ritornello. 

The influence of the monodic style can be recognized 
throughout, particularly in the motets for one, two or three 
voices with thorough-bass. It is clear from the embellish- 
ments of the voice-parts that they were written for performance 
by virtuost. 

EXAMPLE 40 





























é 
al 


a 
“Ane 
| 


t 
lel 
ue 
7a 
qs 
’ 


s q 

NL 
“ey 
| 


= 
/ 


N 
of 
rae 


















































> 2 Soe OS ee oe  —-  ——__ 24 Es 
rl lk | et toe I le eee 
ra wm Cm o7--s "nae eoeemam'@aotiatttsrysyfiesyeifstfte 
A 1) SEED SL A hee ET GH Se Hw ms ey 
5 
Sane 2. oe oe a tus 
— fe SEER ER ees Se 
7.7 SRIEONREN _ sera RSS | a SE ee 
Ulan Wa Ee eee ee 
Nap. 
Sane <2 eas 
7. REE 
~~ fe) = 
ener =. 








An Ave maris stella for eight voices divided into two groups 
recalls Gabrieli’s style. Ensembles for eight or four voices 
alternate with solos, and the instruments play ritorne//i in the 
intervals. 





SACRED MUSIC I21 


The Magnificat scored for six voices and six instruments 
is a superb composition of extraordinary variety. It presents 
one curious peculiarity which has just been pointed out to 
me by Prof. Francesco Vatielli, who, at my request, has been 
kind enough to study this work from the manuscript at the 
library of the Liceo Musicale of Bologna. ‘The thorough-bass 
part, destined for the organ, contains indications of organ- 
stops, for example, ‘‘ Magnificat, Principale solo, principale, 
€ ottava-principale, ottava e quintadecima,” “‘ Qui fecit! Princt- 
pale e registro delle zifare 0 voci umane,” etc. ‘There are also 
precise indications for execution. ‘The Et exultavit is to be 
accompanied by the “principal”? alone, played slowly, 
because the tenors here perform rapid runs. 

The work is written in concertato style. Some verses, 
certainly, are sung a cappella with the organ, but the majority 
are treated in cantata style, the Fecit potentiam, for example, 
for one voice and three instruments, the Quia fecit for three 
voices and two instruments, the Sicut locutus for a solo voice 
and six instruments in dialogue. Interludes separate the 
verses of the Magnificat, and the cornetti and violins echo 
each other. 

To obtain an idea of the splendour of Monteverdi’s instru- 
mental style in his church music one must read, in the Torcht 
edition, the Sonata sopra Sancta Maria, taken from the collec- 
tion of 1610, written for a solo voice and eight instruments. 
viols, cornetti and trombones. The constantly recurring 
figures, the powerful sequences, give the impression of a 
triumphal ascension. 

Yet there is something meagre in the melodic figures 
executed by the instruments above the liturgic theme chanted 
by the voices in unison: Sancta Maria ora pro nobis. Monte- 
verdi realized that the methods of instrumental polyphony 
could not. be the methods of vocal polyphony, and, intent 
upon discovering them, he sometimes neglected matter for 


f 


122 MONTEVERDI AT VENICE 


form. Whilst his madrigals and monodies are always richly 
expressive, there is at times something hollow, something 
mechanical, in his instrumental style. As with Veronese, 
the subject disappears in the preoccupation with dazzling 
colouring. 

He has a predilection for the brass, for the profound 
sonorities of the trombones, for the cornetto whose tones, 
softer than the trumpet, more colourful than the flute, seem, 
as Padre Mersenne has said, like “a ray of sunlight shining 
in the gloom when they are heard among the voices in the 
Cathedral churches.”’ * 

To these compositions must be added the psalm, Laetatus 
sum, for six voices with the accompaniment of two violins, 
two trombones and a bassoon, and a thorough-bass for the 
organ. It was published after Monteverdi’s death in 1650, 
with the Missa a 4 of which we have already spoken. It 
presents a most perfect contrast with the archaic style of that 
work. It has been published by La Fage in his excellent 
Essais de Diphtérographie musicale. ‘The psalm is divided into 
four sections. ‘The first is sung by two soprani with a con- 
certed accompaniment of two violins and thorough-bass, the 
second by two tenors supported by two trombones and the 
organ, the third by two basses in dialogue with a bassoon. 
Finally the six voices and five instruments echo each other, 
before uniting in a powerful homophonic ensemble to the 
words Gloria Patri et Filic. Monteverdi seems to have 
defied the laws of musical possibility in thus constructing 
the entire work on a basso ostinato consisting of four notes 
(G-G-C-D) indefatigably repeated for nearly two hundred 
bars. He only quits it for twenty bars at the words of the 
Gloria in order to modulate from G to A major. 

Yet let no mistake be made. It was works of this type, 
and not the masses and motets in counterpoint, which made 

* See Note 115. 





SACRED MUSIC 123 


Monteverdi's reputation as composer of sacred music. It 
is obvious from contemporary records that his great popular 
successes were the big works in which voices and instruments 
are combined. 

Cafii has quoted one of Strozzi’s letters describing the 
solemn mass celebrated in the church of SS. John and Paul, 
in honour of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, on May 25th, 1621. 
It had been composed by Monteverdi for the occasion. It 
is clear that instrumental music played an important part 
in it. Strozzi emphasizes the moving character of the 
symphonic passages written in the mixolydian mode, which 
seemed “ like to draw tears of grief” from all that heard it. 

By the very words he uses, one can see that the work was 
sumptuous, with an external brilliance well calculated to 
delight a people who loved all kinds of splendour. He gives 
special praise to the suave De Profundis, sung at the elevation 
in the form of a dialogue, as it were, between ‘souls in 
Purgatory and angels come to visit them.” * 

Monteverdi cannot get away from his epoch. It would 
be a misconception to regard him as a “ Gothic”’ who has 
strayed into the splendour of the dying Renaissance. He is 
of his age, which is the age of Bernini. Like the great 
Neapolitan artist, he has a passion for real life, a powerful 
sensuality, a restless soul tortured by one desire: to give 
powerful expression to human emotions. Sincere mystic 
as he was, he knew contemplation and even asceticism, but 
they were with him transitory crises. Monteverdi feels his 
soul rising to God upon the sound of voices and instruments, 
the perfume of incense, beneath the gilded vault of St. Mark’s, 
Within its glittering walls. The fervour which overflows in 
his soul expresses itself in religious effusions. His motets 
and spiritual cantatas are, for the most part, identical with his 
arias and secular cantatas. ‘To express his love of God and 

* See Note 116. 


124 MONTEVERDI AT VENICE 


the Blessed Virgin, he uses melodic phrases which could well 
be addressed to some passionately adored mistress. One can 
imagine nothing more sensuous and passionate than the 
motet O guam pulchra es, extracted by M. Vatielli* from 
Simonetti’s collection (1625), with the languorous tones of its 
melismata and its chromatic descents. 


EXAMPLE 41 





Ve - - ul Ve - - ni quia a- mo -re lan-- gue ---0 


The Salve Regina, extracted by Tirabossi from the Selva 
Morale, resembles at moments a love-duet. 


EXAMPLE 42 





Dulcis dulcis virgo O - O--. Ma-ri - a 


A Salve Regina for solo-voice, published by M. Pineau,T 
is an operatic aria, and a very beautiful one, but it might well 
belong to the Orfeo. There is the same dramatic feeling, the 
same declamation, in short, the same “ representation” of 
passion. The motet Currite populi, which appeared for the 
first time in 1625, is strangely in advance of the epoch at 
which it was composed. It contains something like a fore- 
taste of the Jucoronazione di Poppea. It is written in cantata 
style, and is insistently reminiscent of the compositions of 


* See Note 117. t See Note 118. 





SACRED MUSIC 126 


Luigi Rossi and Cesti of twenty years later. The return of 
the phrase currite, currite popult, with its characteristic sequences, 
divides the motet into three sections in a way frequent in 
Lulli’s work. ‘The theme of rejoicing, //eluia, is quite in the 
style of the canzonette of Luigi Rossi and Marazzoli. 


EXAMPLE 43 


— 
—~ a 
EE eee ine aon ace # ——Ghido,J-— a — gh wat 
ELLE ELIE ER IDET Da LD SF BB. SSE 
joan _| 












Monteverdi does not fear to introduce the methods of 
opera into sacred music if the occasion demands it. In the 
Selva Morale there 1s a Salve Regina con dentro un Ecco voce 
sola, risposta a Ecco e due Violini. ‘The tenor sings Audi 
Coelum, Verba mia audi, the heavenly voice replies in distant 
echo audio, and the dialogue is continued at length, inter- 
spersed with ritorne/it by three violins. 


EXAMPLE 44 





There are, in the collection of the Se/va Morale (1641), 
many motets constructed in the same way as secular cantatas. 
For that matter, Monteverdi was only conforming to general 
custom. His disciple, Alessandro Grandi, whose religious 
compositions met with even more public favour than his 
own, was writing about the same time regular spiritual 
cantatas. In his first book of motets (1647) he divided the 
O vos omnes, written in recitative style, into three parts separ- 
ated by the repetition of a sinfonia. At other times, he 
combined the voices with two violins and a bassoon or a 


126 MONTEVERDI AT VENICE 


trombone. He also used the ornaments, the fiortturi which 
Monteverdi loved to use, and delighted in expressive chromatic 
figures for the violins. 


EXAMPLE 45 





It was an epoch in which everyone was striving towards 
originality, in which genres were ceasing to have clearly 
defined limits. In his church music, Monteverdi uses all 
the modern inventions, Italian and foreign. He writes a 
Confitebor “‘ alla francese’”’ for five voices. ‘The upper part 
can be sung by a solo-voice, the other four being played by 
violins. ‘This composition is modelled on the plan of the 
French airs de cour. A single voice chants Confitebor ubi, 
Domine, etc. ‘The chorus then repeats the phrase, which is 
developed with alternating so/o and suzti.* 

It has sometimes given cause for astonishment that, towards 
the end of his life, Monteverdi should have adapted some of 
his arias or madrigals to religious words. Certainly it might 
appear strange to find in the Se/va Spirituale under the title 
Pianto della Madonna the admirable Lamento d Arianna, 
but we have no reason for assuming that if Monteverdi had 
had to set to music the Virgin’s Lament for the death of 
Christ, he would not have invented something very similar 
to the complaint of the forsaken Ariadne. The only real 
cause for regret is that these adaptations necessarily lead to 
faults of prosody. Indeed, there is no fundamental difference 
between his secular and his religious compositions, save in 
the few masses and motets which, by a personal peculiarity, 
he contrived to compose in an archaic style which was then 

* See Note 119. 


SACRED MUSIC 127 


only cultivated by a few composers who had remained faithful 
to an obsolete form of composition. 

This conception of religious art conflicts with our modern 
ideas, but we must not forget that Monteverdi lived in Venice, 
in the country of Titian and Veronese, where, every year, when 
carnival ran wild through the town, priests went masked 
through the streets, nuns crowded to the parlour to hear the 
jests of extravagantly costumed cavaliers, and to laugh at 
their buffooneries, while at the gates of certain monasteries 
nuns were to be seen dressed in the height of fashion, or even 
‘disguised as men, with a plume in their hats, making their 
bows with grace.’’ Strange convents, those of Venice, 
where “ the nuns go to choir when they want to, get up and 
go to bed when they think fit.””* A considerable part of 
their time was passed in making music, eating sweets, or 
chattering between themselves or with friends in the parlour. 

The churches themselves were mere concert-halls, where 
people met to discuss the most secular matters, or to pass 
the time listening to splendid music. ‘‘ These assemblies,”’ 
remarks Saint Didier, “‘ seem anything but religious gather- 
ings,” and he describes the fine ladies seated in their arm- 
chairs, talking to their friends during the services, or conversing 
in signs with the gentlemen on the other side of the church, 
who paid far more attention to what the ladies were doing 
than to the religious ceremony. 

It was for these monasteries and these churches that 
Monteverdi wrote his sacred music, so that we cannot be 
surprised at the secular spirit of compositions written for such 
frivolous congregations. What is astonishing is that, in so 
worldly an atmosphere, he should have given any time to the 
composition of so large a number of masses and motets in 
the severe style. 

But there are strange contrasts in Monteverdi. Grave, 


* See Note 120. 


128 MONTEVERDI AT VENICE 


religious, austere as he was, he can write, if the occasion 
demands, madrigals or arias of lively grace, of burning 
passion. His genius was capable of any form of expression, 
and his imagination allowed him to express with equal mastery, 
with equal sincerity, the most contradictory emotions in 
incredibly diverse forms. 


IT] 
OPERAS AND COURT SPECTACLES (1615-1630) 


A.ruoucH much absorbed in his duties as Maestro di 
Cappella, Monteverdi nevertheless continued to compose 
operas, ballets and interludes for the princes or nobles who 
counted it an honour to produce the works of the most famous 
composer of Italy. From about 1615 onwards, his fame. 
spread throughout the Peninsula. However great his 
reputation as composer of sacred music, it was eclipsed by the 
popularity of his dramas and madrigals. 

With the exception of the ballet Tirsi e Clori, we possess 
nothing of the dramatic music composed by Monteverdi 
between the drianna (1609) and the Ritorno d’Ulisse (1641). 
Yet we can gather some notion of his dramatic style from his 
madrigals and from his correspondence, which gives the most 
enlightening information upon his conception of the opera. 

Although he was several times invited to work for the court 
of Florence, Monteverdi only wrote operas for the Dukes of 
Mantua and Parma, and for the patricians of Venice. Fer- 
dinando Gonzaga, from the moment of his accession, made 
every effort to persuade Monteverdi to return to Mantua, but 
the musician had always eluded the invitation, comparing no 
doubt the brilliant situation he occupied in Venice with the 
hard servitude in which he had passed twenty years of his life 
at Mantua. Yet the Duke of Mantua remained his sovereign 
lord. Monteverdi did not forget that he was a citizen of 
Mantua, and that his sons had been born there. ‘The com- 
mands of the Duke were sacred to him. He only rebelled 

K 129 


130 MONTEVERDI AT VENICE 


when Ferdinando seemed to forget that he was no longer in 
the service of Mantua, and that he was now under the control 
of the Most Serene Republic. In February 1615 the Duke, 
who had asked him for a ballet for the Carnival, sent him 
orders to leave at once for Mantua. But Monteverdi was no 
man to suffer such cavalier treatment. His reply to Councillor 
Striggio 1s extremely witty. ‘To comply with the Duke’s 
command, he says, he would have had to be booted and 
spurred and ready to step into the courier’s boat when the 
letter arrived. He has no desire to pass a bad night, and 
perhaps catch some illness, particularly as the weather is so 
rainy that it is almost impossible to go out. So he prefers 
to wait, and would be glad if the libretto could be sent to him 
at Venice so that he may write the music for it at his leisure. 

The lesson was not fruitless, and when, in the autumn of 
the same year, the Duke of Mantua called upon Monteverdi 
to write the music for the ballet Tirsi e Clori, he ordered his 
ambassador to make a personal visit to his former Maestro di 
Cappella so as to persuade him to undertake the work.* 
This ballet has been preserved. It is to be found in Book VII 
of the Madrigals. The charming text was very probably 
written by Alessandro Striggio.t 

In a very gay tune to 6/4 time, Thyrsis invites Cloris to 
dance, but the amorous Cloris begs to stay apart with him, 
Her languorous supplication contrasts with the cheerful song 
of the shepherd. 


EXAMPLE 46. 





However, the shepherd insists and prevails. 


* See Note 121. t See Note 122. 


PreenRAs AND COURT SPECTACLES 131 


EXAMPLE 47 





’ 





Su Clo-ri mio co-re An-di-a-moa 1 lo-coch’in-vi - ta - 






3 


- no in - vi - ta-no al gio-co le Gra-tie coi A -mo - - - fri 


The lovers sing a duet on the same theme, then the ballet 
begins, It is a madrigal for five voices. The voices are 
supported se piace by a certain number of instruments, violins, 
spinet (spinetta-arpata), small lutes. Like all the Ballet 
sung at the time in Italy or England, it comprises a certain 
number of movements (eight in all) with reprises. After a 
brief introduction in common time, the dance begins in 6/4. 


EXAMPLE 48 





The melody and rhythm vary in the two succeeding stanzas, 
but the 6/4 time is maintained until the fourth “ change,”’ 
then the rhythm is that of the dactylic metre (U—ve—). 
The 6/4 time is resumed, and the ballet concludes in rapid 
common time, with a final cauda /ente. 


EXAMPLE 49 





Bal - - -li - am’e giriam Corri - - am’e _ sal-ti-a-mo Bal - - -li - - a-mo. 


As to the way in which the ballet was performed, we have 
only the suggestions given by Monteverdi in a letter of 
November 21st, 1611, addressed, it appears, to Striggio. 
He wishes the musicians to be arranged in the form of a 


132 MONTEVERDI AT VENICE 


crescent, at one point of which there 1s to be a harpsichord, at 
the other a theorbo, the first to accompany Cloris, the latter 
Thyrsis. The singers are to accompany themselves on the 
theorbo. Cloris’s theorbo might well be replaced by a 
harp. 

After the dialogue, when the dance is about to begin, the 
other voices will join with Cloris and Thyrsis in the ballet 4 huit, 
accompanied by eight violins, one contrabasso di viola, one 
spinet (spinetta-arpata). ‘Two small lutes would make a 
happy addition to the orchestra. 

It is not at all certain that this ballet, which Ferdinando had 
ordered for his wedding with Camilla Faa, was ever performed, 
and Monteverdi does not appear to have been invited to con- 
tribute to the coronation celebrations which took place in 
Mantua at the end of April 1616. Some months later, the 
Duke suggested that he should set to music the Favola di 
Peleo e di Teti of Conte Scipioni Agnelli. Monteverdi, in a 
frequently published letter, dated December 16th, 1616, 
began by refusing on the ground of his distaste for the mytho- 
logical libretto. This letter is of capital importance for the 
comprehension of Monteverdi’s art. It shows that while the 
musical drama was manifesting an increasing tendency to 
transform itself into a purely spectacular genre in which the 
musician played second fiddle to the scene-shifter, and had to 
concentrate far more on delighting the ear with picturesque 
and pleasing music than upon emotional expression, Monte- 
verdi, whose aim was always to give powerful expression to 
human emotion, remained faithful to the realism of which he 
had given such marvellous examples in the Orfeo and the 
Arianna. 

“How can I,” he writes, “imitate the language of the 
winds, which cannot speak, and move hearts through their 
mouths? Ariadne was moving because she was a woman, 
and Orpheus because he was a man, not a wind. ‘These 


Oren As AND COURT SPECTACLES 133 


mythological personifications, these Tritons, these Sirens, are 
not capable of interesting and moving the spectator.” 

This does not mean to say that Monteverdi despises the 
lovely style of the canzonetie and cantate which were delighting 
the court of Rome, but he feels that it has no place in lyrical 
drama. Some weeks later, Striggio having defined his 
position, and made it clear that the Nozze di Tetide was not, 
properly speaking, a lyrical drama to be set to music, but a 
series of musical scenes to be inserted as interludes between 
the acts of a comedy, all Monteverdi’s objections disappeared. 
As soon as he realized that the business in hand was music, 
not drama, to “sing, speaking,” not to “‘ speak, singing,”’ 
the subject seemed made for him. He only desired that 
there should be added a final canzonetta in praise of the noble 
couple, which could be arranged to serve for a general ballet.* 
It is clear from the alterations he requires that he is no longer 
concerned with dramatic expression but with pure music. 
In the place of three stanzas sung by a solo-voice, he suggests 
that the first stanza should be sung as a solo, the second as 
a duet, the third as a trio. He thinks that Venus’s narration 
after the complaint of Peleus should be entrusted to Signora 
Adriana, whose powerful voice could carry on a dialogue with 
the united voices of her two sisters. He also goes into 
questions of costume, and desires that Signora Adriana 
should change her dress in the course of the performance. 
He is about to set to work on the spoken narrations ; 
he will subsequently compose the passages for singing 
(quelli che si cantano di garbo), and elsewhere he alludes to the 
fact that these passages are to be ornamented with runs and 
fioritori. 

The scenes of the Nozze di Tetide were to serve as interludes 
sung between the acts of another piece, perhaps the Galatea 
of Chiabrera. The Duke had hurried on the work for the 


* See Note 123. 


134 MONTEVERDI AT VENICE 


fétes due to take place at Mantua at his marriage with Caterina 
de’ Medici, sister of the Duke of ‘Tuscany. 

The first idea was that these celebrations should be particu- 
larly splendid. The Galatea of Chiabrera, slightly retouched 
by the author, was to be sung on this occasion, set to music 
by Sante Orlandi. An opera, Endimione, was also to be per- 
formed, and the Duke Ferdinando was said to have himself 
collaborated both in the text and in the score; finally there was 
to be an opera ti e Cibele by the famous singer Francesco 
Rasi. Quite suddenly the Duke gave up the idea of the Nozze 
di Tetide when Monteverdi had almost finished the score. He 
wanted a genuine opera. Scipione Agnelli proposed a subject 
the pathetic character of which was well suited to Monteverdi, 
La Congiunta d’ Alceste e d’ Admeto, but the Duke counter- 
manded the order when the work was well advanced, and the 
only piece given was the Ga/atea of Chiabrera, which was per- 
formed without particular splendour. ‘The Duke told Monte- 
verdi, who was awaiting from day to day the order to come to 
Mantua, that he would not be required. 

Monteverdi felt very bitter about this, and does not attempt 
to hide the fact in his letter to Striggio of February 18th, 
1617. He had not only lost time and work in setting to music 
interludes which would never be performed, but to fulfil this 
order he had refused his friend Ottavio Rinuccini’s invitation 
to Florence. The Grand Duke and all the court desired to 
make his acquaintance, and Rinuccini had hinted that he would 
be expected to contribute to the marriage celebrations. He 
had been badly rewarded for his zeal in Ferdinando’s service. 

The same year, 1617, Monteverdi, in collaboration with 
Salomone Rossi, Muzio Efrem, and Alessandro Giunizzoni, 
composed interludes for the Maddalena of G. B. Andreini. 
This curious composition marks a stage between the Florentine 
pastoral and the great spectacular performances which were to 
be popular in Rome. From the confusion of different genres, 


Peto AND COURT SPHCTACLES 135 


tragedy, comedy, tragi-comedy, religious drama, there 
gradually emerges a new form called melodramma, that is, 
modern opera. La Maddalena already marks the final 
stage of this transformation, since there is no doubt that the 
major part of this piece was not recited, but sung.* Monte- 
verdi does not seem to have attached any importance to this 
piece. He was an old acquaintance of Andreini, whose wife 
Virginia had created the réle of Ariadne, and sung the lament 
of the Ballo delle Ingrate. We probably wrote some passages 
for the Maddalena simply to oblige Andreini. 

Monteverdi reveals in his correspondence the difficulty 
he had in keeping up with the work which was heaped upon 
him. In 1618 the hereditary prince, Vincenzo Gonzaga, 
commissioned him to write an opera, Andromeda, to a libretto 
by his secretary, Ercole Marigliano. Monteverdi set to work, 
but was constantly interrupted. Easter was coming on; he 
was occupied from morning to evening by services at St. 
Mark’s; then for Ascension Day he had to complete a great 
mass, some motets, and a cantata to be sung on the Bucentaur 
when the Doge cast his ring into the sea in renewal of the 
eternal pact with the Adriatic. He hoped to have more time 
during summer, but he suffered from violent headaches during 
the hot weather, and his work seemed heavier than ever. “I 
never see Saturday come,” he writes, “‘ without a sigh that it 
comes so soon.” F 

While we can form no idea of the music of the 4udromeda 
from Monteverdi’s letters, we can at least realize to what an 
extent he had bound himself by the conditions of its execution. 
He asks the Prince how many voices will be at his disposal 
for the choruses, whether he may write a ritorne//o, and upon 
what instruments he may count. Can the chorus, J/ fulgore 
onde resplendono, be sung and danced at the same time, and 
what instruments are to accompany it ? f 

* See Note 124. + See Note 125. t See Note 126. 


136 MONTEVERDI AT VENICE 


The orchestration was similar to that of the Orfeo, the author 
making use of all the instruments at his disposal to produce 
tone-colour. ‘This explains how Monteverdi was able later 
to adapt himself with ease to the exceedingly restricted 
resources of the Venetian theatres. 

The Andromeda was to have been produced at Mantua by 
Monteverdi himself at the carnival of 1620, but the musician 
was dismayed at the brief time allotted to him for the pro- 
duction of a work of such dimensions. He explained to 
Striggio that if he were forced to complete it in a few weeks, the 
result would be deplorable. On January 16th he still had four 
hundred lines to set to music. He foresees “ verses badly 
recited, instruments badly combined, harmonies badly con- 
ceived.” ‘This sort of thing cannot be done in a hurry, and 
he reminds Striggio of the five months of rehearsals which 
had been found necessary for the Arianna. Prince Vincenzo 
having insisted, Monteverdi writes to Striggio on February 
Ist that he will not come to Mantua, as he wishes to have no 
responsibility for a performance which cannot, in the circum- 
stances, be anything but execrable, in view of the conditions 
imposed upon him. 

Simultaneously with the 4udromeda, Monteverdi had been 
setting to music an eclogue by his friend Striggio on the 
subject of the Loves of Apollo and Daphne. The most 
important passage of this composition was a lament of Apollo 
for the death of Daphne, which Monteverdi frequently 
produced with success in the Venetian salons. He seems to 
have wished that this divertissement, which comprised only a 
small number of performers, should be produced at the carnival 
of 1620 instead of the Andromeda, but his wish does not 
appear to have been fulfilled. 

Ferdinando Gonzaga always regretted that he had not 
succeeded in getting Monteverdi into his service. On the 
death of his Maestro di Cappella, Sante Orlandi, in 1619, he 


Wiimwo AND COURT SPECTACLES 137 


renewed his efforts to induce Monteverdi to accept the vacant 
post, but Monteverdi was not at all attracted to the idea of 
leaving Venice. He was even much troubled by the fact that 
the advances made to him by the Duke of Mantua were known 
to the Procurators of St. Mark’s, who feared that he would 
leave them, and only very unwillingly gave him leave of 
absence when business called him to Mantua. ‘To put an end 
to all these difficulties, he wrote to Striggio the long and fre- 
quently quoted letter, in which he contrasted the honour and 
material advantage of his post at Venice with the constant 
difficulties which he had met with in Mantua, and which still 
continued, since the pension granted him by the late Duke 
was only paid to him with evident unwillingness. Yet, 
desirous to spare the feelings of the rulers of Mantua, in 
December, 1619, he dedicated his seventh book of madrigals 
to the Duchess Caterina, who rewarded him with a gold neck- 
lace. For that matter, the Duchess was favourably disposed 
towards him. It was by her influence that he was able to enter 
his son at the college of the Cardinal di Montalto at Bologna. 

The Duke continued to show the same want of decision. 
In March, 1620, he suddenly decided to give a great féte to 
celebrate the birthday of the Duchess, which fell on May 2nd. 
He wished to revive the Arianna of Monteverdi, and produce 
Peri’s Adone. Monteverdi hastened to send him a copy of 
the score, but excused himself from going to Mantua to 
superintend the performance. It was well for him that he. 
did so, for at the last moment the Duke decided upon a simple 
ballet. Monteverdi had profited by the occasion to petition 
for the conversion of his pension into a capital grant, but without 
success. During the summer, he went to Mantua, and begged 
Ferdinando to grant him at least a few months’ advance on his 
pension. His request was granted without difficulty, and this 
enabled him to establish his son Massimiliano, who had just 
finished his medical course,’at Mantua. 


138 MONTEVERDI AT VENICE 


Monteverdi, for that matter, always regarded himself as 
one of the Duke’s subjects, and rendered him a host of minor 
services. He kept him informed of the compositions which 
might be profitably performed by his musicians, and sometimes, 
even at the risk of offending the Procurators, he arranged that 
certain singers or instrumentalists should offer their services 
to the court of Mantua instead of entering St. Mark’s. 

It is noticeable, however, that the relations between Monte- 
verdi and Ferdinando Gonzaga became less close after the 
failure of certain of the former’s artistic enterprises. ‘There is, 
in fact, no proof of Ademollo’s supposition that some of Monte- 
verdi’s compositions were performed at the carnival of 1620 on 
the occasion of the marriage of the Princess Eleanora with the 
Emperor of Austria. In May, 1623, Ferdinando went to 
Venice, accompanied by the Duchess and the entire court. 
Monteverdi must have contributed to the celebrations which 
marked the occasion, and doubtless heard his own madrigals 
sung on the Grand Canal by the admirable musicians of 
Mantua. The famous Leonora Baroni was in the Duke’s 
suite, and resided in the palace of the patrician Mocenigo, 
Monteverdi’s chief patron, where, three years later, was per- 
formed the Combattimento di Tancredi e di Clorinda. 

The few letters which we possess written by Monteverdi 
between 1619 and 1626 show that he was busy supplying the 
court of Mantua with singers and instrumental performers, 
but contain no allusion to any commission for operas. He is 
principally in communication with Conte Ercole Marigliani, 
the favourite of the hereditary prince Vincenzo. 

Vincenzo Gonzaga, who had always shown Monteverdi 
much admiration and affection, invited him to collaborate 
in the court fétes at his accession in 1626. Monteverdi 
offered to compose either interludes to be performed between 
the acts of the comedy which was given annually, or an 
opera. He suggested, in the first case, scenes from the 


. a 


OPERAS AND COURT SPECTACLES 139 


Ferusalemma Liberata, which he was then composing ; in the 
second, a piece by Giulio Strozzi, La Finta Pazza Licori, of 
which the subject appeared to him both interesting and 
original. The Duke accepted the latter suggestion. 

The character of Licori, who feigns madness, and appears 
sometimes dressed as a man, sometimes as a woman, appealed 
particularly to Monteverdi, for it rendered possible the expres- 
sion of varied emotions. Now at this time, as we shall see 
when considering the madrigals, he was intent upon finding 
direct and exact expression for ideas and images. “‘ When 
Licori speaks of war,” he writes, ‘then the sounds of war 
must be heard; when of peace, then the music must express 
peace; when of death, then the impression of death must be 
conveyed, and soon.” * Wecan easily form an idea from the 
Combattimento of the way in which Monteverdi expressed these 
various impressions in music. 

The loss of the Finta Pazza Licori is irreparable, for Monte- 
verdi devoted his entire energy to its composition. It pro- 
vided him with a whole field of dramatic experiment. To his 
friend Striggio he speaks of the work with enthusiasm. We can 
gather from his letters that he collaborated in the libretto, for 
he required Giulio Strozzi to recast certain scenes, and we can 
feel his pleasure in creating new musical effects. 

It seems astonishing that Monteverdi should have admired 
the extravagant inventions of Strozzi. ‘They are much 
inferior to the rather stilted majesty of Rinuccini’s or Chia- 
brera’s Greek creations. Strozzi, like G. B. Andreini, aims 
principally at astonishing his audience. ‘The highest praise 
he can conceive, is that his compositions should be considered 
bizarre. ‘The explanation is that Monteverdi, concentrated 
upon realistic expression, finds, in these preposterous situations, 
excellent occasion for displaying his talent. The inco- 
herent ravings of the pretended madwoman give him the 


* See Note 127. 


140 MONTEVERDI AT VENICE 


opportunity for a rapid alternation of brilliant and soft 
harmonies. 

This desire for realistic and varied expression gradually 
took precedence over all other considerations. Monteverdi 
refused Rinuccini’s Narcisso because, although its literary 
beauty was great, it offered no situation of dramatic intensity, 
and because there was danger of monotony in its continual 
dialogues between shepherds and nymphs.* On the other 
hand, in 1627 he enthusiastically accepted a commission from 
the court of Parma to compose a prologue, some interludes, 
and the music for a tournament. 

The text of these divertissements having been published by 
Angelo Solerti, we can only with difficulty understand the 
obvious interest with which Monteverdi set them to music. 
The verses of the interludes particularly delighted him. 
Written by Ascanio Pio di Savoia, they are, he says, animated 
by varied emotions (tutti variati d’affetto). ‘The text of the 
prologue and the tournament, by Claudio Achillini, pleased 
him much less. ‘‘ Where I have been able to find no variety 
in the emotions,” he writes, ‘‘ I have at least sought to bring 
variety into my music.” ¢ It is this passionate search for 
dramatic effect which subsequently led Monteverdi to that 
Shakespearean conception of opera of which the /ucoronazione 
dt Poppea is the masterpiece. 

It was in September 1627 that Monteverdi received from 
the Marchese Bentivoglio the invitation to collaborate in the 
magnificent fétes which were to accompany the celebration of 
the marriage of the Duke of Parma with the Princess Mar- 
gherita of Tuscany. Charmed with the interludes of Ascanio 
Pio, he accepted the invitation with enthusiasm. A glance 
through one of them, on the subject of Diana and Endymion, 
sufficed to give him an idea of its general arrangement. He 
established his plan, deciding in advance the colour he was to 

* See Note 128. t See Note 129. 


Peo oN) COURT SPECPACLES (141 


give to each scene. He realized that the Endymion would 
require four types of music, or, more exactly, four styles. ‘The 
first style was to form the introduction and lead up to the scene 
of the quarrel between Venus and Diana, the second would 
express the quarrel, the third would begin with the arrival of 
Pluto, who came to restore calm, and the fourth would 
express Diana’s love for Endymion.* 

It is very regrettable that the music of this interlude 
should have disappeared. We should no doubt find in the 
quarrel scene an example of that concitato style which Monte- 
verdi had used for the first time in the Arianna, and of which 
he made systematic use in the Combattimento. 

These fétes gave Monteverdi a great deal of trouble. He 
was obliged to go to Parma several times, more particularly 
to view the Farnese theatre,f and the amphitheatre which was 
being specially constructed on the Piazza San Pier in view of 
these performances, in order to adapt his music to their vast 
dimensions. ‘The newly-married couple were due to return 
to Parma in November, but the ceremonial entry could only 
take place at the end of December, and Monteverdi was 
obliged to ask for an extension of leave to direct the perform- 
ance of these works, in which the most celebrated virtuosi from 
every town in Italy were to take part. 

The prologue, Tet# e Flora, which represented, with much 
stage-craft, the liberation of Roger from the palace of Atalanta, 
the Loves of Dido and Eneas, Diana and Endymion, the 
Argonauts, and the other interludes, were an immense success, 
and rather distracted the attention of the audience from the 
pastoral 4minta, between the acts of which they were played. 

The tournament, Mercurio e Marte, was given in the huge 
hall of the Farnese theatre, which had been specially designed 
for spectacles of this type. A mythological story, sung on 


the high stage, served as pretext for the jousts of the cavaliers 
* See Note 130. t See Note 131. 


142 MONTEVERDI AT VENICE 


which took place in the semicircle reserved between the stage 
and the spectators. 

The best singers of Italy distinguished themselves upon 
this occasion, among others the famous Loreto Vittori, who 
later became the favourite of Pope Urban VIII and the 
idol of the Romans, who thronged the churches to hear him. 
This was also the beginning of the career of the famous 
soprano Marc Antonio Pasqualini, surnamed Malagigi, who, 
little more than a child at this time, had been brought from 
Rome by his tutor. All the parts were taken by virtuosi of 
repute who had been rehearsed by Monteverdi. He hated 
anything like hasty performance, and must have been de- 
lighted to see his work performed with such perfection of 
detail. 

For that matter, the performances at Parma were a triumph 
for him, too, and Luigi Inghirami, who has left us a detailed 
description of the fétes, voices general opinion when he calls 
him “‘ the first Italian composer of the day.” 

Of these interludes and the sorneo, only the poetic text 
remains.* The music composed two years later by Monte- 
verdi to celebrate the marriage of Giustiniana Mocenigo with 
Lorenzo Giustinian has also disappeared. Monteverdi 
must have written it with great care. Mocenigo had always 
been his patron, and we know by his correspondence how 
affectionately disposed he was to the young Lorenzo Giustinian. 
To please him, he went to great pains to get the famous actors 
of the ducal company to come from Mantua, and always 
showed himself ready to serve him.f 

The poetic text was by Giulio Strozzi, who had already 
provided him with the libretto of La Finta Pazza Licori, the 
ballets had been arranged by the choreographer Girolamo 
Scolari, the scenery and stage effects had been designed by 
Giuseppe Schioppi. The performances took place in the 

* See Note 132. t See Note 133. 


Preenio AND COURT SPECTACLES . 143 


Mocenigo palace.* It is possible that the music was destroyed 
by accident, for Strozzi’s play was performed in 1644 in the 
Teatro San Mosé with new music by Francesco Sacrati. The 
Arianna had just been successfully revived, and it is highly 
probable that if Monteverdi’s score had been available, no other 
would have been performed in its place. 

After 1630, the sack of Mantua and the plague diverted 
Monteverdi’s attention for many years from operas and court 
spectacles. But he returned to them at the end of his life. 
In 1641, at the request of the Duke of Parma, he agreed to 
write the ballet La Vittoria d’ Amore, which was to celebrate the 
birth at Piacenza of an heir to Odoardo Farnese. 

Only Bernardo Morandi’s libretto has been discovered and 
published by Angelo Solerti.f The subject is the rivalry of 
Cupid and Diana. Love, naturally, conquers the chaste 
goddess. It is interesting to speculate to what degree Monte- 
verdi, who had doubtless already begun work on the In- 
coronazione di Poppea, had been inspired by this trite subject. 
In any case, the ballet remains a proof of Monteverdi’s 
adaptability. At sixty-three years of age, he was able to 
comply with all the whims of his noble patrons, finding in 
the most futile intrigue an idea for a picturesque scene. To 
judge from the libretto, Monteverdi must have treated the 
entire score in the manner of a vast cantata, with a multitude 
of songs, ariettas, duets, trios, choruses, not to speak of dances 


played and sung. 
* See Note 134. Tt See Note 135. 


IV 


FROM THE MADRIGAL TO THE CANTATA, 
1615-1638 


THE inventions of the recitative style, which the Camerata 
Bardi had destined exclusively for the theatre, had brought 
about, in less than twenty years, a complete revolution in taste 
and habits. On every hand, musicians had attempted to 
write for the concert-room or for the church arias for solo- 
voice with thorough-bass. Caccini, Sigismondo D’India, 
Luzzasco Luzzaschi, Ortensio Naldi, Ottavio Durante, Sara- 
ceni, Kapsberger, S. Pietro de Negri, Belli, and, a little later, 
Alessandro Grandi, Giuseppe Rovetta, Sances, Manelli, Bene- 
detto Ferrari, Milanuzi, and still others whose names are for- 
gotten to-day, produced the first examples of these composi- 
tions, which were more melodious and more ornate than the 
first recitative me/opeia and moved more freely and more 
definitely in the modern major and minor keys. Soon, 
throughout Italy, madrigals were neglected for canzoni, can- 
zonette, arie for solo-voice; instrumental polyphonic music 
was replaced by music for a solo-instrument accompanied by a 
thorough-bass. Monteverdi did not give up the madrigal 
all at once. Preoccupied with the profound expression of 
feelings and ideas, he despised neither the acquisitions of the 
past nor the inventions of the present. We have seen how 
he enriched tragedy in recitative with all the resources of 
vocal and instrumental polyphony ; he now endows the madri- 
gal with all the inventions of the homophonic school. ‘The 
madrigal, which has already served him as a field of experi- 

144 


THE MADRIGAL TO THE CANTATA — 145 


ment for the attainment of a powerfully expressive harmonic 
style, in which the feeling for major and minor keys, then 
quite new, makes itself felt, is now to be transformed by him 
into a new genre, the Cantata. Monteverdi was certainly 
not the sole creator of this form. Others, between 1620 and 
1630, had given the first examples of it, taking the monody 
as their point of departure, but it 1s curious to see how Monte- 
verdi, starting from the old madrigal, arrives at the same 
result as they, and at the same time. 

This transition from the madrigal to the cantata was made 
in three stages, marked by the publication of Book VI of the 
Madrigals in 1614, of Book VII in 1619, and of Book VIII 
in 1638. 

The very title of Book VI testifies to the decay of the poly- 
phonic ideal: “ J/ sesto libro di madrigali a cingue voci con un 
dialogo e sette, con suo basso continuo, per poterli concertare nel 
clavicembalo e altri stromenti.’ * ‘Vhe thorough-bass, indeed, 
permits of the various parts being reduced for the harpsichord, 
a single voice remaining. It is not surprising that Ariadne’s 
lament, here arranged for five voices, should find a place 
in this collection. With very slight modifications of the 
rhythm, with the prolongation of certain passages to permit 
of the play of imitations, the original melody is to be found 
throughout, predominating in one or other of the voices. 
The accompaniment, which is formed by the other voices, 
cannot be very different from that played by tge viols at 
the performance of 1608. 

The major part of the collection is taken up with the set 
of six madrigals, Lagrime d’amante al sepolcro del amata, com- 
posed by Monteverdi in 1610 to words by Scipione Agnelli, 
in memory of Caterinuccia Martinelli. The first part is 
one of Monteverdi’s most moving pages. A single voice 
evokes the fragile spirit, “‘ Iucenerite spoglie, Avara Tomba,” 


* See Note 136. 
L 


146 MONTEVERDI AT VENICE 


while the other voices act as orchestra. ‘The harmonic style, 
the insistent rhythm, give the impression of a funeral 


symphony :— 


EXAMPLE 50 


2 
> 





ES SEER E SERS EIT i EE GR ES EE FERS Ge Pls 
0 el & GSTS. RSET SS ES & HS «WS RT bb WE Ge Ss 
(1 ce | Ca SRS SS) EES § 2 0 2S EES FS LST GS 


In -- ce ne rm-te spo --- glie a--va ---ra 
Je NN eel we Re a 
= UE EE. 2 DER. ASD SEE TPR C ERL IOEEIE DD ADD DID ID, HIE PE OR 
bh 1 2 RS EA SEE SEE Pa SE” RY GR I FOI EI, GS 
© 28, 0 RE EES GE RE SES ES A .  «  <SEOO EG .WNRE NT LSS 
A Ce Pe) TEER 45 SE WF MT) YY RS MANE wy eras a 
In - ---- ce nen - - te spo - - - glie 
Y a ~ VSR, GEES Sl 0) EEE SERRA) SEO WT © HSER ESE SRS ee ee ee 
(co. 2 ee | ee A 2 ee ee Oe RR A Pee) SESE SS 
EES Bi SS Gi @ BRE BEGG sd 6 EW Wee SN Pn 
rd 
, D ’) ahs 
°° \ 2, GE OEE A. SEE EEE. ~ ees PON 
oa) LST iE, EER BY EEE Seas Hi @ RMT SITT MOTOS 
LED, TOE EY A ILI OTLT TEL, BS RRS I DIAG PPR 
tom. - . ba uJ 
re 4 a ly gl) 
A -- - va-ratom - - - ba Fatta del mi-o bel sol 


The grief-stricken lover calls on the dryads, the nymphs, 
the whole of nature to share in his grief. ‘‘ A moment of 
serenity shows heaven, where doubtless the dead Corinna 
lives ; butethe earth 1s desolate and the woods are deserted since 
she left them.” The lover gives full voice to his despair. 
He invokes the Muses, and pours forth his lamentations. 
Then he grows calmer. It 1s of no use to mourn. An 
ocean of tears will not give life to the dead. The opening 
rhythm (—uvc—) reappears, practically in its original 
form; and while a single voice is heard in sad resignation, 
the other parts form an accompaniment of instrumental 
character. 


fee MADRIGAL TO THE CANTATA 147 


EXAMPLE 51 


quea-ma--te re -— li-quie un mar 





“This is truly Latin art,” writes M. Tessier, “ the art of 
Virgil, very moving by reason of the sincerity of the emotion 
expressed, but both true and beautiful in form.” Like the 
great classics, Monteverdi maintains his right to interpret 
nature, but, transposing the real on to the plane of the ideal, 
he ennobles without deforming it. 

In Book VI, Monteverdi has collected pieces of very different 
style. Misero Alfeo is a madrigal of the type of those which 
are contained in Book V. While the melody is always clearly 
defined in one of the parts, the feeling is polyphonic, and the 
master delights in the subtle play of imitations. 

Zefiro torna, which has been popularized in a very mutilated 
form in A. Mendelssohn’s edition (Peters), seems to be one of 
Monteverdi’s very early compositions. It is written in imita- 
tions on a charming pastoral theme of somewhat popular 
atmosphere, and is delightfully fresh and spring-like. The 


principal part, written in recitative and dramatic style, 1s 


148 MONTEVERDI AT VENICE 


accompanied by the other parts in ingenious and expressive 
counterpoint. 

The new arietta and cantata style appears quite clearly in 
the madrigal Qui rise o Tirsi. Above the basso continuo first the 
two high voices, then the two low voices sing in duet. At 
rare intervals, the five voices sing a few chords together, but 
the style of this madrigal is essentially the same as that which 
later was adopted by composers of operas when they wished 
to show off two or three voices in a duet or trio. ‘The voices 
pursue each other lightly, borrowing from each other brilliant 
and rapid runs, and at the end unite and interweave in long 
concatenations of thirds and sixths. A duet of the same type 
appears in the middle of the madrigal Bazto qui pianse Ergasto, 
which is, however, taken as a whole, more polyphonic than 
the other. 

Addio Florida bella cannot be regarded asa madrigal. It is 
a dramatic sketch which might be detached from an opera, 
like the /amento of Ariadne, which it closely resembles. It is a 
classic farewell scene. A lover (tenor) bids farewell to his 
lady; she (soprano) replies to him in despair. The monodies 
are accompanied by a thorough-bass. The chorus only enters 
to discuss the departure of the lover, and even then the soprano 
voice continues to predominate, the other parts being restricted 
to supporting it discreetly with strong single chords. The 
conclusion only, at the word Addi, is treated in contrapuntal 
style. The dialogue is in recitative, and certain passages 
embellished with vocalises show the first appearance of the 
ornate style which was to become characteristic of the cantata 
and the opera. 


EXAMPLE iy 





THE MADRIGAL TO THE CANTATA 149 


This madrigal comprises, in addition to the basso continuo, 
a basso seguente which doubles the principal part throughout. 
It is probable that it served as score to the maestro who con- 
ducted the performance. 

The seven-part dialogue, Presso un fiume tranquillo, is a 
kind of prototype of the dramatic madrigal and of the cantata 
for several voices, of which the Combattimento is the most 
perfect type. ‘The ensembles play the same part as the antique 
chorus, 7.e.of the narrator who recounts what is about to happen. 

They are silent where, in the text, one of the characters speaks. 
A solo-voice accompanied by the basso continuo then sings the 
words which the poet has allotted to his hero. ‘Towards the 
end, there is a love duet between the soprano and the tenor, 
decorated with passionate vocalises, and the fiza/e, for seven 
voices in contrapuntal style, celebrates the happiness of the 
lovers in tones of voluptuous joy. 

The form of the cantata, which is essentially a concert-opera, 
can already be recognized in this piece. ‘The composer gives 
full scope to the virtuosity of the performers. It is a grave 
error to imagine that Monteverdi, in virtue of some kind of 
asceticism, despised anything which could contribute to the 
beautification of musical forms. He was as passionately fond 
as any Luigi Rossi of fine contours, beautiful lines, ornate 
vocal passages. It is clear that he gladly adopted the plastic 
inventions of the Romano-Neapolitan school. There is a 
tendency to exaggerate somewhat the novelty of the methods 
he employed ; what is really new is the way in which he adapted 
processes already known to express feelings and ideas. ‘The 
peculiar stamp which is borne by everything Monteverdi ever 
wrote is not attributable to the use of any particular harmonic 
formula, nor to any particular turn of the melodic phrase, 
but to its dramatic feeling, to its own peculiar atmosphere. 

Far from showing any hostility to the new fashion for 
ariettas for one or two voices, Monteverdi adopted it with 


150 MONTEVERDI AT VENICE 


enthusiasm. Perhaps he realized that he had got out of the 
madrigal everything of which the genre was capable and even 
more. Perhaps, pure musician as he was, he delighted in 
seeing music revenge itself on poetry, to which the Florentines 
had wished to subject it. In point of fact, from about 1615 
onwards, he neglected the madrigal, and even the recitative, 
and composed a large quantity of songs for one, two, or three 
voices with thorough-bass in cantata style. The seventh book 
of the madrigals, dedicated to the Duchess of Savoy in 1619, 
is full of them, and contains practically no madrigals properly 
speaking. 

The ballet T7rsi e Clori, composed, as we have seen, in 1615, 
for the court of Mantua, comprises some arias and a duet with 
accompaniment by the harpsichord and chitarrone, followed 
by a madrigal for five voices. The “ love-letter,” Se z danguide 
miei sguardi, for solo-voice and thorough-bass, is exceedingly 
interesting, and G. B. Doni was justified in quoting it as a 
perfect model of Monteverdi’s representative style, for it 
reflects the slightest shades of meaning and even the sous- 
entendus of the text. ‘The rest of the collection contains only 
Canzonette for two voices in the new melodic style, brilliant, 
ornate and rapid, which was beginning to find public favour. 
Most frequently, each song comprises three or four verses; 
which, unlike the vil//anelle or airs de cour, are sung each to a 
different melody. ‘The bass alone remains unchanged in 
each different verse. It is extremely interesting to see the 
ingenuity with which Monteverdi, quite unembarrassed by 
this constraint, has ceaselessly varied his melodies. ‘There is 
a subtle interplay of imitations between the two voices, and the 
hand of the master-contrapuntist of the Missa a 4 da cappella 
is to be seen in a perfectly secular passage such as the two- 
part romanesca : Ohime dov’é il mio ben. 

In these songs, as in the Scherzi Musicali, Monteverdi 
reveals all his capacity for pure grace. The tendency is to 


THE MADRIGAL TO THE CANTATA 151 


regard him as master only of the sombre and powerful style 
of the Orfeo. In that terrible and charming city of Venice, 
ruled in turn by political intrigue and outbursts of gaiety, 
Monteverdi sings of love and its delights with voluptuous 
ardour. ‘The sensuality which informed the love madrigals 
of his youth here appears in lighter form in the ariettas for 
two voices, composed to verses in artificial style. He delights 
in expressing the dying flames of the unhappy lover, or in 
comparing his fate with that of the bird who sings to his captor. 
In O come sei gentile, caro augellino, he amuses himself by 
imitating, in fantastic rou/ades, the song of the captive night- 
ingale. It is a far cry from this to the sublime lament of 
Ariadne, or the complaint of Orpheus. Monteverdi changes 
his tone, and, without abandoning anything which he has 
acquired, takes pleasure in outdoing the musicians of Rome and 
Naples, whose songs were being sung throughout Italy. He ts 
capable of incorporating into his style the inventions of the 
younger school, and of using them at the opportune moment. 
L’ Incoronazione di Poppea is a marvellous example of this style. 

The collection entitled Quarto Scherzo delle Ariose Vaghezze, 
by Carlo Milanuzzi, organist of Santo Stefano at Venice, pub- 
lished 1n 1624, contains several songs and cantatas by Monte- 
verdi quite akin in spirit to the graceful compositions of 
Milanuzzi himself.* ‘The collection also contains two airs by 
Monteverdi’s son Francesco. These compositions are less 
interesting in themselves than on account of the tendencies 
they reveal in Monteverdi’s work. He would seem tempo- 
rarily to have neglected the ideal of dramatic expressiveness 
which he had always pursued, and to have concentrated upon 
composing chansonnettes of sprightly grace. 

The melodies are essentially diatonic and tonal; chromatics 
appear only very incidentally to give expressive force to 
certain words, for example in the canzonetta, La mia turca. 

 oee NOte:. 37: 


152 MONTEVERDI AT VENICE 


EXAMPLE 53 


“mt — or 
2 oe es os ee 
(a Li © anc ms en Pee SES as ee Oe 


La mia Turca che d’Amor non ha fé Tor-ce il pié S’io le narro il mio dolor 





Po 
aan 0 Ros Gas ers 
“a 2 {kee Snes esis Seo See 





This air comprises several stanzas, then, as a conclusion, 
Prendi Parco invitto is sung to the same melody, which is slightly 
modified and developed towards the end. 

Ohime ch’io cado is a cantata in the sense in which the word 
was understood about 1624. ‘The six verses are written over 
the same bass, and separated by the repetition of the same 
ritornello, but the melody shows ingenious variations, of 
which the opening bars of three of the stanzas give an 
idea. 


EXAMPLE 54 










EES EWES TEER ES Sy GSR ERE . WEEE CEG We 
= SS ae, _ 
EAE SG EY BEER 









cre - de-v’io 





pur d’haver schermo- sit - cur daunnud’arcie - ro 

















Py A h ES PEI SERIE ER SET 
meee bea eS 2S WS oo TEE os SS OSS =. Ee SR 
eae a rae Sea os ames Oe Wes Woe Bam women mes oe 

- SRE PSO A SO A ASD GEER OSS * SoS RES ee. 









Oo —————__ come sa pv - nir Tirann’ Amor lar - dir d’alma ru-bel - - - - - Ia 


The song, Sz dolce é’/ tormento, is extremely interesting in 
its simplicity. It 1s somewhat akin to the melancholy vi//anelle 
of Kapsberger. Monteverdi creates an original effect by 
repetitions ; the melodic line scarcely deviates, yet remains 
very expressive. One feels that Monteverdi is intent npon 
the creation of a new monodic style, which shall be more 
melodious than the recitative, and more general and less 
particularized in its expressive effect. 


Pao MADKIGAL. FOCLHE CANTATA 153 


EXAMPLE §5 





Si dolce e’l tormento ch’in seno mi sta ch’io vivo con - tento Per cruda bel-ta 





- ta che sempre qual scoglio All’ on-dad’Or - goglio mia fe-de_ sa - ra 


In 1632 a collection of Scherzi Musicali for one and two 
voices was published at Venice by Magni.* ‘The title is the 
only thing they have in common with the songs in mesuré style 
which we have already considered. ‘They consisted for the 
most part of simple songs, the various stanzas of which differed, 
though they were sung to the same bass. ‘They are sprightly, 
rhythmic, and resemble those which Luigi Rossi was then 
beginning to compose in Rome. 


EXAMPLE 56 





E ou gia tut- ta mi-a quel al- ma e€ quel co- re 


Some of them are frankly popular in spirit, and contain a 
suggestion of the future “ buffo ” style in opera. 


EXAMPLE 57 





Ma - - le - det - to Sia — l’as - petj- to che m’ar-detris-to me 


The hand of Monteverdi can be recognized here and there 
in characteristic harmonic effects, in powerful rhythms, in 
poignant silences. The canzone for two voices, Armato il cor, 
which Heinrich Schiitz later took as subject of one of his 


* See Note 138. 


154 MONTEVERDI AT VENICE 


compositions, already anticipates Cavalli’s famous Conspiracy 
of Medea (Giasone, 1646) * and recalls at the same time the 
warlike effects of the Combattimento. 


EXAMPLE 58 





Armato il cor Armato il cor Armato il cor d’adamantina fede nell’amoroso 


The highly developed canzone, Et é pur dunque vero com- 
prises six different stanzas sung to the same bass, and separated 
by charming instrumental ritorne/i. ‘This work is exceed- 
ingly finished in form, and astonishing in its range of expres- 
sion. While it 1s not a cantata, the style is already that of the 
cantata. This is not surprising. While the word cantata 
only appeared after 1620 in titles of works by Grandi, Rovetta, 
Milanuzzi, etc., the genre existed long before that date. 
There are madrigals in Book VI which, as we have seen, have 
already the form of cantatas for several voices, and Domenico 
Mazzochi was, about this time, writing dramatic scenes for 
concert performance, in which the combination of solos, duets, 
and sutti shows the characteristics of the cantata for several 
voices. Between 1620 and 1638, Alessandro Grandi, 
Giuseppe Rovetta, and Benedetto Ferrari, to quote only three 
musicians with whom Monteverdi was in touch, published 
small cantatas for solo-voice, as yet slightly developed, and 
consisting for the most part of several stanzas each sung to a 
different melody, though on the same bass, and separated by a 
ritornello ; a little later, the genre consisted of a canzone or 
an aria preceded by an important recitative. 

The cantata is, in point of fact, a literary rather than a 
musical invention. It consists of a new grouping of well- 
known forms, and it is not surprising that one of the first to 
have used it, Benedetto Ferrari, was as much a poet as a 

* See Note 139. 


THE MADRIGAL TO THE CANTATA 155 


musician. In the cantata for several voices, a narrator, who 
is sometimes replaced by a chorus (in the work of both Monte- 
verdi and Domenico Mazzochi), exposes the subject, and 
the characters intervene in turn. Thus there are linked up 
recitatives, arias, chansons, duets and ensembles. ‘The cantata 
for one or two voices consists of canzonette and arias connected 
with each other by scraps of recitative. ‘The whole forms a 
little lyrical or dramatic scena, though senza gesto, without 
dramatic action. In its origin, in the work of Ferrari and 
Manelli, the recitative occupied a large part of these composi- 
tions, but was later cut down to give place to passages in 
fixed forms. ‘The cantata style was an exercise in elegance, 
in plastic beauty. Matter was certainly of less importance 
than form, but musicians such as Luigi Rossi or Carissimi 
were able to create marvels of music in this genre. Above all, 
it must not be imagined that the art of these masters was with- 
out expressive power. On the contrary, 1t was exceedingly 
expressive, but frequently inopportunely so. The dispropor- 
tion between the feelings expressed by the text and their 
transposition into music is disconcerting. The gallant 
badinage of a lover, who implores the eyes of his mistress to 
refrain from wounding him with their conquering darts, 
becomes a cry of anguish, an ardent, desperate supplication, 
It is partly the temperament of the Southerner at work; still 
more it is the result of that baroque taste, tumultuous and 
excessive in all things, which has given us the upturned eyes 
of penitent Magdalenes, the tortured bodies of St. Sebastians 
gleaming in the moonlight, in a strange mixture of sensuality 
and sentimentalism. 

About 1630, though the cantata hardly existed, the cantata 
style existed, not in the form it was to take in the hands of such 
men as Luigi Rossi, Marazzoli, Abbatini, Cesti or Stradella, 
but, though a little heavy, already showing the tendency 
to rounded contours, to symmetrical construction, to delicate 


156 MONTEVERDI AT VENICE 


ornamentation which characterizes the baroque style in music 
as in architecture, and anticipating the development of voluptu- 
ous melody of the Romano-Neapolitan school. 

Monteverdi wrote a host of arie, of canzone, of arietie, of 
cantate for one, two and three voices, which were sung in every 
home in Venice and Italy. The majority have not been repub- 
lished; they can be consulted in the collections published 
during the master’s lifetime, or shortly after his death, in 
Books VIII and IX of the Madrigals (1638 and 1657), in the 
Selva Morale (1641), and in the contemporary collections of 
airs by various authors, printed or in manuscript. 

By the side of the dramatic cantatas of which he gives the 
model in the madrigals of Book VIII, there are sprightly 


canzonette, full of wit and fire, 


EXAMPLE 59 


N » N 
}—_—_——. a h}—}—¢ : pS pa ae = SOP ieee SR WS ay Re ec 
VO ¢ 2 .. ee. ee ee Oe Ae a SS) RES CO PS “SS wee A 
ide De ee WE SP a ey ey eC AREER AGE PRIS Gear eS 
2). EE ES A Se AS ~ SP LE OER Oy SS WAS GANS Wy LE) BT Se 
quando dentro’! tuo se - no vi - - - braamo - ro - so. sguar - = 

Se eee lee ) ) mime S \ Z 

ra 2 aaa aaa @. J LE PERE ARR EEE FERTEY PL 
Ee eee EE ED, LEE, CREDITED EDI EES EEE | ATEN IEE ee 
on EIT OSE SE SEIMEI) 
: AAR IIS AIDED HOMIE NEEL IIE 


- do il primo dol-ce dardo, o che gioir! che gioir! gioir! o che Sie’ 





and little drawing-room cantatas of various forms. One 
of them, d/cun non mi consigh, for three voices, is ingeni- 
ously arranged.* ‘The tenor first sings his lover’s complaint, 
to the accompaniment of the thorough-bass, then the three 
voices unite to sing in chorus, Nox me n’adiro, non me ne doglio 
(l rage not; I grieve not). ‘The second tenor then enters pro- 
claiming that love can never die, then the trio is resumed ; 
* See Note 140. 


Bebe visDRIGAL TO THE CANTATA i¢4 


finally, the bass intervenes, and the conclusion is sung by the 
trio. ‘Thus the three virtuosi who perform this composition 
each has the opportunity of displaying his vocal technique. 

These compositions show a new and gayer Monteverdi. 
He delights in inventing lovely melodies for gallant verses 
as a relaxation from the composition of masses and motets in 
the severe style. With his passionate love of life, he was, till 
the end of his days, curious of all that was new. At more than 
seventy years of age, he was in touch with all that was going 
on, and readily adopted new forms. He did not, however, 
attach exaggerated importance to them, and never forgot that 
the essential point is music, and not the varying forms it adopts. 

It is exceedingly difficult to distinguish precisely between 
his inventions and his borrowings. At this time musical © 
technique was continually being enriched by the discoveries 
of a whole group of artists. Monteverdi was certainly the 
predominating figure among them, but he did not disdain 
occasionally to borrow new processes from them. His influ- 
ence on Francesco Cavalli was enormous, but it would seem 
that he himself was influenced in his turn by his disciple in 
his Venetian operas. ‘The same might be said of G. Rovetta, 
whose little airs, characterized by extreme simplicity of form 
and by a very marked sense of tonality, may have served as 
models to Monteverdi in his own canzonette. 

Monteverdi attached considerable importance to certain of 
his technical inventions, and he takes care to indicate these 
in the prefaces to the Scherzi Musicali (1607) and the 
Madrigali Guerrieri e Amorosi (1638). It is prudent to abide 
by what he says and not blindly to attribute to him innova- 
tions which belong not to any one man, but to a whole genera- 
tion of passionate seekers, who followed the same road, and 
worked in contact with each other.* 


Book VIII of the Madrigals, published at Venice in 1638, 


* See Note 141. 


158 MONTEVERDI AT VENICE 


contains work of quite a different character. There is no 
need here to go back upon the Ballo delle Ingrate of 1608, 
nor is it necessary to consider the madrigals, which tell us 
nothing we do not knowalready. ‘The madrigalisdead. The 
compositions for six voices with two violins and thorough- 
bass, which, in this collection, take the place of the madrigals 
for five voices, are conceived from a standpoint which is only 
very slightly polyphonic. ‘They are choruses in vertical 
harmonies, in syllabic counterpoint, with passages for one, 
two, or three voices. The two and three part compositions 
are written in canzone style. Monteverdi was himself so com- 
pletely persuaded of the decrepitude of a genre from which 
he had extracted everything it could give that he again turned 
to France for ideas through which to rejuvenate it. 

The Duke of Mantua was interested in the compositions 
of Guédron, Superintendent of Music to the King of France, 
whom he had perhaps seen during his journey to Paris in 1608, 
and ordered the compositions of this musician to be sent to 
him as they were published by Ballard.* ‘There was nothing 
exceptional in this, and airs by Guédron are to be found in the 
principal court libraries of Italy. 

Monteverdi was certainly in touch with foreign music, 
either through the Duke of Mantua, whose musical director 
he was, or through his friend, the poet Rinuccini, who was 
constantly in Paris, and had already introduced the Badllet de 
cour from France into Italy. In the collection of 1638 there 
already figure two madrigals alla francese, composed on the 
model of the airs de cour. A solo-voice sings the first line, or 
the first group of lines, and all the voices echo the same phrase, 
after which the development is carried out with contrasts 
between so/i and zuiti, The soprano sings: 


Chi vuol haver felice et lieto il core 
Non segua il crudo Amore, 


* See Note 142. 


Pore vADRIGAL PO THE CANTATA rego 


and the phrase is repeated textually in syllabic counterpoint by 
the soprano, guintio, alto, tenor and baritone. Then the soprano 
resumes with Quel lusinghier ch’ancide, and the guinzio, alto, 
tenor and baritone sing the same motive in turn. ‘Then comes 
a short homophonic passage, showing the alternation of 3/4 
and common time so prevalent in French music, and again 
the soprano and the chorus borrow and reborrow phrases 
from each other until the conclusion, in which all the voices 
unite. 

A comparison of technique shows how puny Guédron 
appears by the side of Monteverdi. When he wishes to, 
Monteverdi develops his ideas al/a francese far better than 
contemporary French composers could do, but the interest 
of these compositions resides in the indefatigable curiosity of 
mind which ceaselessly incited Monteverdi to adopt new or 
foreign methods. 

These madrigals in the style of the airs de cour are among 
Monteverdi's most delicious and sweet compositions. A 
delightfully pastoral impression is given by the Dolcissimo 
usignuolo. A shepherd speaks to a bird, envying its lot: 
“ Why have I not wings that I might fly to my love?” The 
melodic phrases are ample, and of set purpose simple. 


EXAMPLE 60 





In his madrigals, Monteverdi never makes use of the vague, 
ill-defined rhythms beloved by the French composers of the 
airs de cour, but he specifies that they are to be sung very 


160 MONTEVERDI AT VENICE 


freely, especially in expressive passages. Thus the voices 
which murmur the accompaniment of the Nymph’s complaint 
in the madrigal Now avea Febo ancora must conform exactly 
to her song, which is to be directed by ‘‘ her emotion, and not 
by the beat of the conductor’s hand.” * 


EXAMPLE 61 














(| Soprano 
[id 2 ie z é b Sg Pa PEPE Se SS ° 
a ee A ed ears A aRSMESEGA Toe mcs a 
(Ven DOR] DEP eee PTE TE CE CE ET PE SEIS PTE SNS S 
BNR GREED ESE We (eee Ss AS APE IG T) De PTI 
A _Duo Tenori _A- mor A 
Pr ee ee pe 
‘¥ a 1} RACERS, RETR Wie eRe EAE PE a oie Ree ee | 
Os ee 
| EDEL EDT BD EE ae ELE A Cie ELIE IDS BILE EN ENA UE 9 PARES ED SE RE ee 
Di ---ce---a 


| 
) 














See eee eee 

Y sy ES ~ CR, TS TEE NLS .RE SE DS 

6c, a RS CETTE (PEERS IINS PEPIN Sk 

RS DS aa ana eeNTmene MENNNINEE Ri Shee 

A -mor 
6 

A = SA EN Gee Fea, SS PR SESE ESS 

Sa SO ee ee eee 

ASS, CTR LOE AE TS EES EE ERS EY TY © FASE (SS WS 
il ciel mi - - ran-do il pié fer --- mo 

*— Ee SSS (Fk a -_ so EEE CARE BR PLIES SST 

(4 { DEE PA EEE Fo. ey ae ee ee rete GR si EO ee EERE, 

pf ff RE Nig RETR Tie Sos a aie aay 
RCRD 1S . SRY << CEES SASS Sd ae 











The collection of Madrigali Guerrieri e Amorosi (Book VIII) 
opens with a kind of prologue in honour of Emperor Ferdi- 
nand, to whom it 1s dedicated. It is scored for six voices, 
four viols, two violins and a spinet. Monteverdi again sings 
of love in this book, but also of the cruelty of war. The words 
Di Marte furibondo e fiero 1 duri incontri are sung to repetitions 
of semiquavers. Later, a solo-voice supported by a viol and 
a spinet sings to the glory of the Emperor crowned with 
immortal laurels. Monteverdi gave minute attention to the 
details of the execution; for example, at one point he requires 
thas the “ bowing ”’ shall be carried out in prolonged and soft 

* See Note 143. 


PettevIAUDRIGAL [TO THE CANTATA 161 


strokes (Viole sole toccate con arcate lunghe et soave). Precise 
directions of this kind are quite exceptional at the time. 
A ballet Movete al mio bel suon sung by five voices with two 

violins recalls Tirsi e Clori and the Ballo delle Ingrate. A 
scene in recitative between the Poet and a Nymph precedes 
the dance-music proper which, according to current usage, 
comprises a certain number of time-changes, corresponding 
- to the various figures of the ballet. Monteverdi even provides 
for the insertion towards the end of some instrumental dances 
to be composed by the ballet-master. 

This collection includes a work of capital importance, the 
Combattimento di Tancredi e di Clorinda.* It had been com- 
posed twelve years earlier, and performed in 1626 at the house 
of the patrician Girolamo Mocenigo, one of the accepted 
patrons of the musician. In his frequently quoted preface, +t 
Monteverdi considers at length the conditions which led him 
to invent the agitated (concitato) style. He had been struck 
by the fact that musicians ordinarily expressed gentle, sweet, 
sad, or joyous feelings, never anger or martial rage. Now 
Plato expressly says that music must be capable of expressing 
the feelings of those who march valiantly to war. Monte- 
verdi therefore sought the solution of the problem in the use 
of an appropriate rhythm. It is very possible that on this 
occasion his interest in antique metres, which had been aroused 
by the French musique mesurée, may have stood him in good 
stead. Indeed, his point of departure is the pyrrhic foot wv, 
which seemed to him the exact contrary of the spondee —-. 
Now, as the spondee expresses calm, the pyrrhic foot should, he 
considers, be a marvellous method of expressing agitation. For 
that matter, it had been used by the Greeks in warlike dances. 
His next idea would certainly have caused considerable 
astonishment to the ancient Greeks; he juxtaposed pyrrhic 
feet in such a way that he obtained sixteen quavers in a single 

* See Note 144. + See Note 145. 


M 


162 MONTEVERDI AT VENICE 


bar. The effect of these repeated notes, known to-day as 
“tremolo,” did, in fact, render impressions of agitation, anger 
and terror in the most picturesque and expressive way. His 
love of contrast led him to seek a text which would give him the 
opportunity of expressing in turn the fury of war, religious 
emotion, and death. He found it in the episode of the Combat 
of ‘Tancred and Clorinda in Tasso. He set it to music, 
modifying the poetic text slightly in places. 

For the first time, it seems that the orchestra is quite 
independent of the voices. It creates an atmosphere round 
the drama which is being played; it expresses what the voices 
suggest. It is, moreover, exclusively composed of stringed 
instruments (viole da brazzo, basso e contrabasso da gamba) 
with the harpsichord, which played the thorough-bass. 

The characters are Tancred, Clorinda, and the Narrator 
(Testo). The last-named opens in recitative style, singing 
Tasso’s beautiful verses to a melody in which the melodic 
line is singularly even, the voice moving nearly all the time on 
the same degree of the scale. Tancred, believing Clorinda 
to be a warrior, wishes to provoke her to combat. The 
orchestra, as his challenging words are pronounced, reinforces 
their effect with appropriate music. There is something 
miraculous in Monteverdi’s art. A common chord, repeated 
for a long time in a certain rhythm, suffices to give the impres- 
sion of the galloping of horses, of the charge of the impeteus 
horsemen: 


EXAMPLE 62 





fe MADRIGAL TO THE CANTATA 163 


or, a little further on, the wary approach of the adver- 
saries, @ passt tardi e Jenti, or the warlike frenzy which 
animates them. 


EXAMPLE 63 





Monteverdi disdains any harmonic artifice ; rhythm suffices 
him, and by means of rhythm alone he obtains marvellous 
effects. Now the narrator declaims the Invocation to Night, 
which is preceded by a moving instrumental prelude, and the 
combat begins, the swords clash and resound. 


EXAMPLE 64 








i Say a a ae ee en, RD A 5 Sie" OS ey I ES ey, ae . a a, ee - 8 ESS 07 
iar Rae ae o4 
5 PPPP 
| D2.V2 Bs DS ee ee eer SY J DG Aa AGS Gey 
LY ¢ 3S CR (7% ies A ae eae Ge. SI ESS Sy Se ee ee ee Ge ee ee A ee! eet es oe ee TS 
a Cae ER PIG Se ee, CS E }—f--- SS ft IL BO ED EER FRIAR, EE TS BN EES DEE OS ars Bw FSS 
LS el aaa ni. eee i ga. la a we! 








The rhythm becomes abrupt and breathless. One feels the 
enervation, the fatigue of the antagonists. They are weaken- 
ing, but pride revives them and urges them to vengeance. 
Again the repeated semiquavers appear, both in the voice 
parts and in the orchestra. For a moment the struggle is 
interrupted. ‘Tancred calls on Clorinda to reveal her name, 
but her only answer is in scornful words. The adversaries 
throw themselves upon each other, and the powerful and 
poignant description of the struggle is carried out by means 
of the same rhythmic effects until the moment of Clorinda’s 
defeat. Then, abandoning the concitato style, Monte- 


164 MONTEVERDI AT VENICE 


verdi depicts the death of the warrior maiden in tones worthy 
of Tasso. The dying Clorinda can scarcely speak, her breath 
comes fast. Her heroic ardour has died down; her soul is 
filled with a vast desire for peace. ‘‘ Love, thou hast con- 
quered. I pardon thee. Pardon me, and give me the baptism 
that effaces all sin.” 


EXAMPLE 65 


lo ti perdon _‘ Perdona tu anco-ra 


b-4 | 
C7 9 @ 


| 
sua 
~ 
| 
k | 





Tancred, withdrawing his enemy’s helmet, sees the golden 
hair fall round the lovely face, and his heart is broken with 
grief. Thisisa page of admirable beauty. There is no pomp. 
The recitative faithfully reflects all the meaning of the text. 
The dying Clorinda sees heaven opening to receive her, and 
murmurs in ecstasy: 


EXAMPLE 66 


S’a- - pre il ciel 
Violino: Viola soprano 





We can well say, with M. Tessier, that ‘‘ Tasso has not 
been betrayed by the admirable and cultured musician who 
set to music the episode of Tancred’s combat. The two artists 
are worthy of each other.” 


— 


THE MADRIGAL TO THE CANTATA 165 


The Combattimento is destined neither for dramatic nor for 
concert performance. Monteverdi has given precise data for 
its execution. ‘There is to be no special stage. Clorinda and 
Tancred, in costume, are to enter unexpectedly into the sa/on 
in which the performance is to be given. Whilst the narrator 
is relating the action, they are to mime it in exact time to the 
music, and their voices will be heard only in the few phrases 
the composer has allotted to them. Above all, there are 
to be no trills, no roulades. ‘The Narrator will only permit 
himself these ornaments in the Invocation to Night. ‘The 
orchestra is to adapt itself to the dramatic expression of the 
text.” 

As one can see, the work is a kind of drawing-room opera, 
or cantata, in which pantomime was employed ; it is a hybrid 
genre, which 1s, however, sufficiently interesting to make it 
seem somewhat surprising that no subsequent musician was 
inspired by it. 

Nothing has survived of the great secular cantatas com- 
posed by Monteverdi for public or private ceremonies. It is 
exceedingly regrettable that we do not possess the one written 
for the Ascension and sung upon the Bucentaur when the 
vast ship was rowed across the lagoon to bear to the Adriatic 
the age-old homage of the golden ring of her spouse, the 
Doge of the Most Serene Republic. 

In 1628 Monteverdi composed madrigals to verses by Giulio 
Strozzi for the reception and banquet given to the Grand Duke 
of ‘Tuscany at the Arsenal of Venice. Cafh also mentions a 
cantata of his composition, J/ Rosaio fiorito, which he says was 
sung in 1629 at the Accademia dei Concordi of Rovigo to 
celebrate the birth of a son to the Governor, Morosin1. 

These great cantatas, which were performed in the open 
air, must have been particularly suited to the decorative side 
of Monteverdi’s genius, and certain motets in concerted style, 

* See Note 146. 


166 MONTEVERDI AT VENICE 


with sinfonie of cornetti and drums, permit us to form at least 
an approximate idea of them. 

In the absence of these cantatas, as of the operas composed 
during the twenty-three years which separate the Arianna from 
the Ritorno d’ Ulisse, the sacred works, the dramatic madrigals, the 
canzoni, the airs alla francese enlighten us upon the evolution of 
Monteverdi’s genius. All these compositions bear witness to 
his indefatigable intellectual curiosity, his unquenchable desire 
to invent or adopt new methods of expression. At more than 
seventy years of age, he remains young among the young, and 
vies with them in the use of the most audacious formule. He 
was to give, before his death, a supreme proof of the vigour 
of his genius in writing a lyrical drama in which is reflected 
the whole evolution of his talent and its inexhaustible richness : 
L’Incoronazione di Poppea, his masterpiece, and incontestably 
the masterpiece of lyrical drama in the seventeenth century. 


V 
THE VENETIAN OPERAS 


Ir was at Venice that the first public opera-house was 
opened in 1637.* Till then, opera had been “a spectacle 
for princes,” whether in Rome, Florence, or Mantua. Hence- 
forward, the success of the performance was no longer to 
depend on a few great nobles, but entirely on the audience 
who had bought, with the price of their seats, the right to 
criticize the work presented to them. 

The San Cassiano theatre, which was the first to be used 
exclusively for opera, was the property of the patrician family 
Tron, who had built it. In accordance with the custom which 
was adopted by all the other theatres, the boxes were rented 
by the year, and frequented exclusively by the nobility and 
foreigners of rank. The parterre was open, for four Venetian 
lire, to anyone possessing that modest sum. ‘The theatre was 
sometimes managed by the Venetian family who owned it, 
and who engaged a company of singers to whom were con- 
ceded all receipts, except the rent for the boxes, which belonged 
to the family. Sometimes it was handed over completely to 
an impresario, as in the case of the first company to perform at 
San Cassiano, which was directed by two Romans, Benedetto 
Ferrari and Francesco Manelli. | 

There were two opera seasons each year ; the first took place 
in the autumn, the second lasted throughout carnival-time. 
The latter was the more brilliant. It was a season at which 
Venice seemed to run wild, when everyone was in costume, 
even the priests on their way to mass, even the austere 


MeSee Note 147. 
167 


168 MONTEVERDI AT VENICE 


councillors; atime when the ladies of the Venetian nobility 
could at least go in search of the adventures of which they 
dreamed for the rest of the year, shut up in their palaces. And 
what an atmosphere of liberty and joy filled the theatres. 
Only the fear of the armed and masked dravi of the noble 
proprietor at the entrances prevented the animation from 
degenerating into tumult. Though the theatres were privi- 
leged places in which the least act of violence was a state 
offence, grave acts of violence were in fact perpetrated. A 
Mocenigo once shot a Foscarini in his box. However, as a 
general rule, these little disputes were settled outside, and it 
was prudent to be on one’s guard in any altercation with a 
noble. The quays were so dark when the performances were 
over, that it was a simple matter to slip into the lagoon with 
a dagger in one’s body just as one was stepping into a gondola. 
Yet the opera was better behaved than the theatre. The 
presence of ladies of quality in the boxes restrained somewhat 
the impetuosity of the youth of Venice. ‘The singers were 
held in greater respect than the actors. They were received 
with the utmost enthusiasm. The theatre was filled with the 
cry “ Mi butto, cara” of the young Venetians, who, leaning 
out of their boxes, protested their readiness to throw themselves 
into space for love of the singer who was delighting them. 
The gondoliers, who were given the seats which were empty 
when the performance began, expressed their enthusiasm 
in delighted cries. When they recognized an actor, they 
called to him. Saint Didier relates that in his time there was 
a priest who frequently sang at the opera. When he appeared 
in the guise of an old woman, the cry arose “‘ Ecco Pre Pierro che 
fa la vecchia.” * 

Monteverdi’s last masterpieces were written for these 
tumultuous audiences, who seemed entirely given over to a 
furious desire for enjoyment. The conditions of the per- 

* See Note 148. 


THE VENETIAN OPERAS 169 


formance differed as widely as the audience from anything he 
had known before. At Mantua, Parma, Florence or Rome, 
the performances were given in a sumptuous setting. ‘The 
halis shone in the light of thousands of wax torches. Nothing 
was too splendid for these magnificent princes, and the most 
extraordinary inventions of the scene-painters were carried 
out with incredible refinement. At Venice, the impresario 
had to attract the public, but he also had to balance his expendi- 
ture and receipts. Throughout the performance, the audi- 
torium was in semi-darkness. The lantern by the light of 
which people took their seats was extinguished when the 
curtain rose. To read the libretto, people were obliged to light 
little wax candles (cerini) which were sold at the door with the 
scenario. Ihescenery was much simplified. Whilst Giacopo 
Torelli performed incredible feats with the scenery in the 
Teatro Novissimo after 1644, it must be admitted that the 
decorations, during the first period, at any rate, were some- 
what poor, compared with the admirable settings of the 
princely stages in the rest of Italy. The orchestra was 
reduced to a small number of stringed instruments grouped 
round a harpsichord and a few theorboes. On the other 
hand, no expense was spared as regards the singers, and 
the most illustrious virtuosi in Italy were invited for the 
season. 

Monteverdi was able to accommodate himself marvellously 
to these new conditions. His librettists, moreover, who 
were perhaps retained by him, did not multiply extravagant 
scenic inventions in their libretti, and his operas show no trace 
of that capriccio bizzarro de’ Veneziant which, some years 
later, the poet Aurelio Aureli delighted in indulging. 

It must, moreover, be recognized that the first operas played 
in Venice differed little as regards either the music or the 
libretto from those played in Rome. It could scarcely have 
been otherwise. ‘The authors were two eminent Roman 


170 MONTEVERDI AT VENICE 


musicians, Benedetto Ferrari and Francesco Manelli. The 
former was as well known for his poetry as for his music. The 
first works performed by his company in Venice, Andromeda 
and La Maga Fulminata, have disappeared, but it is certain 
that they were typical productions of the Roman esthetic. 
Whilst in Florence and Mantua the recitative tradition had 
maintained itself until this date, the Roman type of opera had 
been influenced from its very origin by the cantata style. It 
is extremely interesting to compare a Florentine opera such as 
the Galatea of Vittori (1639) with essentially Roman operas, 
such as those composed by Domenicho Mazzochi or Stefano 
Landi. In Vittori’s work, the recitative is the very backbone 
of the drama. Through that medium, feelings and passions 
are expressed; the airs, choruses and ballets serve only as a 
diversion. On the contrary, in the Catene d’ Adone, Mazzochi 
clearly writes the recitative without interest. He loses no 
opportunity of inserting airs in fixed form, and songs, and 
the principal interest of the work is, for him, contained in these 
passages. The scores are flooded with little notes, and the 
recitative soon came to occupy less space than the canzonette. 
These brisk, lively, and sometimes touching songs generally 
show a delightful melodic freshness and grace, but they all 
seem to be copied from each other. ‘The same stereotyped 
formule of runs, sequences and cadences are to be found in 
ali of them. ‘They invade opera, as earlier they had invaded 
the cantata. Any subject, whether sacred or secular, serves 
as pretext for exquisite songs. One may say that in Rome 
the dramatic sense rapidly declines, while pure music triumphs. 
It is the victory of formal beauty over profound feeling and 
thought. 

About 1640, however, things had not reached this stage, 
and the musicians of the Romano-Neapolitan school were 
creating melodies which were at the same time emotionally 
appealing and of marvellous formal beauty. They no longer 


THE VENETIAN OPERAS 171 


attempted to find an equivalent in music for the isolated word, 
but sought to render the general feeling of the poem. It is 

very regrettable that Ferrari’s operas, which preceded Monte- 
_verdi’s in Venice, should have disappeared, for there are 
in his cantatas dramatic arias. which, for power and _ plastic 
beauty, would not be unworthy of the greatest masters. The 
opening of this air from the Scherzo libro delle musiche 1s 
characteristic. 


EXAMPLE 67 


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-SS 1) 2 aa Sr ee am 1.408 Sa la Ey SS SR CSR RR FY BRP 
(60 LO A a ON Et Ses a © SF a is Be es ee seca © Aa oe Lo SRS FE oe 
S25 LS FT A TE SS . © Se ee eee aes ee eae SE! 





O Monumen-ti a-pri-te-vi a — pri-te-vi non ve-de-te ch’io 





Moving passages of this kind are to be found here and there 
in the Roman operas of the epoch, but the sense of dramatic 
unity is lacking. It was certainly the splendid stage-settings 
of the Barberini which brought about the ruin of lyrical drama 
as it had been created in Florence and Mantua. 

About 1635, a Roman opera consisted of libretto which was 
generally absurd, the intrigue being almost impossible to 
follow. ‘The fantastic subject gave occasion for constant 
changes of scene, and for divertissements in song and dance. 
It was a splendid display for the delight of the senses, but 
appealing little to the mind.or the heart. Contemporary 
records show that the spectators were principally interested 
in the extraordinary stage machinery and the marvellous voices 
of the great singers. 

This was the conception of opera which Ferrari and Manelli 
introduced into Venice. ‘They soon found a rival in Francesco 
Sacrati of Parma. The Venetian audiences were essentially 
popular. These highly spectacular operas, the solos, the 


172 MONTEVERDI AT VENICE 


tuneful duets and trios were better calculated to please them, 
it would seem, than the lyrical tragedies of the Florentines. 

The intervention of Monteverdi was destined to bring 
about a durable change. Up to a certain point Monteverdi 
accommodated himself to these libretti, the variety of which 
had much charm for him. He too felt the delight of the pure 
musician in writing, under the influence of the cantata style, 
airs and ensembles of fixed form. But he always maintained 
the rights of the recitative. In his hands it never degenerated 
into the poor and languishing declamation which made the 
Florentine operas insufferable. His recitative is expressive, 
powerful, full of music, It is an organized whole, with a 
beginning, a middle and an end. He can extract from words 
the melody they contain within them. The last operas of 
Monteverdi are a kind of fusion between the style of his earliest 
operas and the Roman conception of the cantata-opera. 

In order to understand properly Monteverdi’s last works, 
they should not be compared, as is generally done, with his 
first operas, written thirty-five years earlier, but with the operas 
which were being performed in Italy at the time of their pro- 
duction. ‘There is nothing more typical from this point of 
view than the Palazzo d’ Atlante of Luigi Rossi, produced con 
amore by the Cardinal Antonio Barberini, at the Quattro 
Fontane theatre during the carnival of 1642. Itis the triumph 
of the cantata style in the drama. It contains airs of admirable 
form, very melodious recitatives, ariosi and a host of touching 
or sprightly canzonette of various forms. ‘The orchestra 
accompanies the airs, it represents the murmuring waves 
evoked by the air of the Prologue, and executes charming 
ballets which are danced by the captives of the sorceress. The 
poem, from the fertile pen of a future Pope, Giulio Rospigliosi, 
has none of the incoherences of the ordinary libretti of the 
Roman school, but it has little dramatic power. ‘The action 
stagnates, and obviously interests nobody. The audience 


THE VENETIAN OPERAS 173 


listens to the airs and the canzoni without inquiring into the 
place they occupy in the drama. ‘This is the form of opera 
ridiculed by Benedetto Marcello, in which the airs by the 
composer can be replaced by popular items from the repertory 
of the various singers taking part in the performance. ‘The 
opera tends to become a kind of concert performed amid 
magnificent scenery, in the course of which the audience 
applauds airs, duets, trios without any heed to their apposite- 
ness. 

But this much must be said of Luigi Rossi and his rivals, 
that they created melodic forms of ideal beauty and expressive 
power. From the point of view of variety and perfection of 
form, Rossi may be confidently regarded as Monteverdi’s 
superior. What he lacked was dramatic instinct. One 
might establish an analogous comparison a century later between 
Hasse, whose melodies, with their harmonious periods, are 
among the most beautiful that musical genius has ever created, 
and Gluck, a composer far less subtle, and even, in some 
respects, somewhat clumsy, yet gifted with that natural 
greatness which Hasse entirely lacks. But the analogy must 
not be accepted literally, for Monteverdi is totally different 
from Gluck. 

This Palazzo d’ Atlante, voluptuous, elegiac, of subtle 
melodic beauty, but devoid of force and life, may be con- 
trasted with the first operas of Monteverdi’s disciple Francesco 
Cavalli, which preceded Monteverdi’s own in the Venetian 
opera-house. 

Pietro Francesco Caletti Bree called after his patron 
Francesco Cavalli, was born in Crema in 1602. On January 
18th, 1617, he entered the Chapel of St. Mark’s as singer, 
was in 1640 appointed second organist, and subsequently 
director. He developed entirely under the influence of 
Monteverdi. His talent, powerful, rich and unequal, offers 
a complete contrast with that of Luigi Rossi. Rossi and 


174 MONTEVERDI AT VENICE 


Cavalli were, after the death of Monteverdi and Mazzochi, 
considered throughout Italy as the greatest musicians of their 
generation. [he former is an aristocrat by nature; his 
delicate music is written for an é/ite ; the second is a genuinely 
popular genius, seeing things in broad outlines, with no mind 
for detail. His music is animated by a dramatic power which 
even to-day has lost nothing of its effectiveness. His broadly 
designed melodies, his wilfully simple harmonies, which 
vigorously emphasize tonality, contrast with the subtle experi- 
ments of Luigi Rossi, with their curious development of new 
chromatic effects, of luscious dissonances, of rich frictions.* 

It is particularly in his first operas that Cavalli is seen as 
Monteverdi's disciple. These are to be found in his work the 
rhythmic effects, the impressive silences which give so peculiar 
a stamp to the orchestral work of his master, but his style is 
looser. He can, without effort, paint vast instrumental tone- 
pictures, and has not his equal for composing, in a style, easy, 
flowing, and consistently expressive, a narration in which 
ample periods develop naturally. No musician of the epoch 
possesses to the same degree as Cavalli the sense of the decora- 
tive quality of music. While Monteverdi may be compared 
with Titian, his pupil corresponds, to a certain extent, with 
Veronese. 

Monteverdi certainly followed with interest the productions 
of the new generation. Cavalli had to submit to him his 
Nozze di Teti e Peleo in 1638, and his admirable Didone in 
1641. ‘The master possessed in the highest degree qualities 
which both Luigi Rossi and Cavalli lacked, a superior intelli- 
gence, and a genius for conceiving his characters as living 
beings with distinctive characteristics, their own foibles, their 
own manias. A more powerful dramatist than Luigi Rossi, 
a more subtle musician than Cavalli, Monteverdi in his last 
operas employed with equal skill the operatic and the cantata 

* See Note 149. 


Pit VENE TIANZ OPERAS” * ity Ss 


style, profiting by all the inventions of the art of his 
epoch. 

Venetian opera was not left for long in the hands of foreigners. 
Benedetto Ferrari, who had inaugurated the theatre of San 
Cassiano in 1637 with his 4zdromeda set to music by Francesco 
Manelli, and produced his Maga in the following year, had, 
in 1639, to make way for Francesco Cavalli, who, from 1639 to 
1645, composed all the operas played in this theatre with the 
one exception of Monteverdi’s Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria. ‘The 
sumptuous theatre of SS. Giovanni e Paolo having been opened 
in 1639, Benedetto Ferrari and Manelli transferred their 
activities there, and produced De/ia (poem by Strozzi, music 
by Manelli) and Armida (poem and music by Ferrari); but, 
in the autumn season, they were ousted from the theatre by 
Monteverdi, who there produced his done, which was so 
great a success that it ran throughout the following season, 
and the Nozze d’Enea con Lavinia (1641). Meanwhile, the 
theatre of San Mose was inaugurated in 1639 with the Arianna. 
Thus Monteverdi’s operas were being played simultaneously 
in all the theatres of Venice. 

The first operas written by Monteverdi for the Venetian 
theatres are lost. Of the done, we have only the libretto 
of Paolo Vendramin, printed in 1639, and dedicated to the 
founder of the theatre of SS. Giovanni e Paolo, the patrician 
Antonio Grimani, whose sons were destined to be still more 
celebrated for their crimes than for their passion for opera.* 
The only idea we can get of the Nozze d’Enea con Lavinia 
comes from a detailed scenario. ‘The poem was written by a 
Venetian noble, Giacomo Badoaro, who, in the same year, 
gave Monteverdi the libretto of the Ritorno d’ Ulisse in Patria, 
the score of which has been preserved. 

At the Carnival of 1641 the master produced two operas 
simultaneously, // Ritorno d’Ulisse at San Cassiano, and 

* See Note 150. Tt See Note 151. 


176 MONTEVERDI AT VENICE 


Le Nozze d’Eneaat SS. Giovannie Paolo. It is not astonishing 
that in these circumstances their style should show some slight 
negligences. Monteverdi seems to have written J/ Ritorno 
a’ Ulisse under the influence of the first operas of Cavalli and 
to have regarded with some envy his disciple’s prodigious 
power of melodic invention, the large and powerful con- 
struction, the spontaneous outpouring of music which character- 
ize both the Nozze di Teti and the Didone. He was at the same 
time under the spell of the style of the canzonette, and, with 
advancing age, gave evidence of an increasing taste for the 
folk-song from which he drew his inspiration in his work. 
The Ritorno d’ Ulisse must be considered not as a work finished 
at leisure, but as a kind of improvisation of genius, a vast 
sketch, certain parts of which have been elaborated, while 
others are of set purpose only roughly indicated. 

Monteverdi seems to have been on friendly terms with 
Badoaro, and to have collaborated in the libretto. Badoaro 
was a mediocre poet, but his ideas on dramatic art were not 
without interest. His libretti, with those of Busenello, were 
the first to give historic tableaux highly animated, to combine 
comedy with tragedy and tears with laughter. Men such as 
Aureli and Minato later did little more than to readopt and 
develop this conception of musical drama. One wonders, 
however, whether it was really Badoaro’s invention, or whether 
Monteverdi had not suggested it to him.* 

The characters are drawn with the vigour of outline peculiar 
to the art of Monteverdi. By the side of Ulysses and 
Penelope, whose characters are depicted in the most lively 
fashion, inspired rather by Homer than by Badoaro, there 
are divine characters which are very important, but sometimes 
tedious. They express themselves pompously in a solemn 
and bombastic style. Some secondary characters are sketched 
with spirit; Melanto, Penelope’s lovely servant, in love with 

* See Note 152. 


THE VENETIAN OPERAS 177 


the servant Eurimaco, Eumeus the shepherd, whose songs are 
in popular style, and finally Iro the beggar, a court buffoon, 
-gluttonous and cynical.* Indeed, Badoaro has introduced 
buffo scenes in imitation of the fashion which had obtained in 
Rome for several years past. It must be admitted that 
Monteverdi has treated them somewhat clumsily, and that 
the scenes lack the verve of a Cavalli, the wit of a Marazzoli 
or a Giacopo Melani. In the lucoronazione di Poppea, on the 
other hand, he gets positively Shakespearean effects from the 
combination of comic and tragic scenes. 

The opera opens with a prologue of the greatest beauty. 
Human Frailty laments her weakness. ‘Time vaunts his 
terrible power. He attacks everything, and nothing escapes 
him. He limps, but he has wings. ‘The curious descriptive 
effects at the words zoppo (/ame) and ali (wings) are worthy of 
notice. | 


EXAMPLE 68 





se ben zOp - - - po ho EL PRES eck Gin Re AT es er ane SL al li 


L’Umana Fragilita resumes her complaint. She is the 
sport of Destiny, who at once intervenes, singing an exceed- 
ingly curious air built up on a single phrase repeated in different 
keys, the repetitions giving the impression of the relentless 
turning of a wheel. 


EXAMPLE 69 





Mia vi-ta son voglie le gioje. le doglie le gioje te doglie le do - ghe 


Human Frailty sings a third stanza, still to the same bass. 
The recitative, the dolorous and grave accents of which recall 
the songs of Orpheus, relates the misery of the man who is 

N T See Note 153. 


178 MONTEVERDI AT VENICE 


the prey of love. Cupid then begins a hymn of triumph 
in his own honour, and after a last stanza by Human Frailty, 
Love, Destiny and Time, in a superb trio, threaten Ulysses 
with the cruelties which they inflict upon mankind. 

Throughout this prologue, Monteverdi is at his best. 
Its construction is marvellously solid. ‘The three airs of 
Time, of Fortune and of Love, composed respectively in 
C major, G major, and A minor, are united in the reprise of 
the complaint of L’ Umana Fragilita, and the trio in D minor 
forms a marvellous conclusion to the tableau. ‘This artistic 
choice of keys, and the manner in which they are linked, this 
skill in the construction of a scene had become familiar to 
musicians by their use of the cantata style, but Monteverdi is 
here again in the vanguard. 

The play opens with a monologue by Penelope interrupted 
by the comforting words of the nurse. It is a superb dramatic 
narration, finely developed in three parts, and reminiscent of 
the songs of Orpheus and Ariadne. Monteverdi accumulates 
expressive dissonances and brusque modulations in order to 
express the feelings which overwhelm the unhappy queen. 

To create a diversion, and in accordance with the principle 
of the alternation of sad and gay scenes which was to be the 
rule in Venetian opera, Melanto and Eurimaco appear, 
singing of their love. 

The scene changes, and one sees the vessel of the Phzacians 
which bears Ulysses to Ithaca to the sound of a very suggestive 
orchestral passage. Jupiter persuades the angry Neptune 
to renounce his vengeance. ‘The Pheacians bring the sleeping 
Ulysses to land. 

From this moment onwards the music maintains a pastoral 
character until the end of the act. Ulysses awakens; he 
relates his pretended shipwreck to Minerva, who, appearing 
in the form of a young shepherd, conducts him to the house 
of the shepherd Eumeus. Songs of popular character, grace- 


THE VENETIAN OPERAS 179 


ful canzonette adroitly introduced into the action, contribute 
to the creation of a rustic atmosphere, and form a contrast 
with the dramatic narration in which Ulysses describes the 
tempest which has destroyed his ship. Here appears the 
dramatic air, the result of the representative style inaugurated 
by Monteverdi in the songs of Orpheus, the form of which 
had gradually been rendered more flexible by the development 
of the cantata. Using the sequence as a method of pathetic 
development, Ulysses depicts the violence of the raging seas 
which have thrown his ship on the coast. 


EXAMPLE 70 


Oe BE o0 
pee 
QE We a OS 
5 ST Les eee 














In Act II, Minerva brings Telemachus back to Ithaca 
on a cloud, and conducts him to Eumeus. The stupefied 
delight of the shepherd on seeing the son of his master 1s 
rendered in most striking fashion; the shepherd first utters 
only a stifled cry, which he repeats on a higher note, and 
finally cries with all his strength, “Oh! Oh! Oh! great son 
of Ulysses,” while the bass hammers out a descending run in 
a powerful rhythm in triple time, the instruments crashing 
out solemn chords. Ulysses reveals his identity to Eumeus, 
and this is the occasion for a delightful duet:to a ground-bass. 
The scene of the meeting between Ulysses and ‘Telemachus 
is moving. ‘The father clasps his son to his breast. The 
voices alternate and interweave in passionate effusions. The 
general arrangement of this duet for male voices is the same 
as that of the admirable duet between Nero and Poppea. 
Then the action drags a little. The suitors exhort Penelope 
to marry one of them, but she refuses with dignity. They 
plot the death of Telemachus, but the sight of Jupiter's eagle 


180 MONTEVERDI AT VENICE 


flying above them terrifies them. The semiquavers of the 
stile concitato express their terror at the menace of the god.* 

In the fields, Eumeus finds Ulysses, and tells him of the 
terror of the suitors. Ulysses derides them, and in a very odd 
piece of dramatic realism, actually bursts into laughter at the 
end of the air: Godo anch’ io ne so perché rido. 

Finally, Monteverdi depicts in masterly style the scene of 
the massacre. ‘The suitors try to draw their bows. Ulysses, 
disguised as a beggar, fights with Iro to the sound of a ritornello 
in which is already announced the Sinfonia di guerra which 
bursts out a moment later when Ulysses, drawing his bow, 
utters his war-cry. The terror of the suitors is strikingly 
rendered. ‘They cry aloud, and Monteverdi merely indicates 
the note of the cry, without fixing its duration. ‘The voice 
of the hero exhorting his comrades to fight soars above the 
warlike sounds of the orchestra. 

Act III is the least interesting. The long dialogues in 
which Eumeus, ‘Telemachus and the Nurse convince Penelope 
that the victor is really Ulysses, the discourses of the Gods—all 
this is somewhat tedious. On the other hand, when Penelope 
at last recognizes Ulysses, and calls upon the whole of Nature 
to share in her happiness, the genius of Monteverdi finds its 
full expression. ‘The opera terminates with a superb love- 
duet. 

The score gives us no details of the composition of the 
orchestra of the San Cassiano theatre in 1640, but it is almost 
certain that Monteverdi was obliged to accommodate his music 
to the small number of instruments which were all that the 
exigencies of a commercial undertaking could permit. For 
that matter the simplification of the orchestra due to economic 
reasons coincided with the efforts of composers to give the 
orchestra a centre of gravity. The cantata style, and the rise 
of the solo, quite naturally led musicians to relinquish the mass 

* See Note 154. 


a 


THE VENETIAN OPERAS 181 


effects of the rich instrumental polyphony of the sixteenth 
century. The harpsichord, to which was confided the 
thorough-bass, becomes the centre of the orchestra. With 
one or two theorboes and basses (vio/oni) it suffices for the 
accompaniment of narrations and airs. Sometimes the violins 
combine with the voices and attack brilliant runs. Com- 
position in five parts tends to disappear; the orchestral pas- 
sages are written mostly in four or even three parts. Some- 
times, though in picturesque passages only, such as scenes of 
war or scenes in the infernal regions, the brass—trumpets, 
cornetti, and trombones—appears. This impoverishment of 
the orchestra was indispensable to the establishment of a new 
balance of sound. ‘The harpsichord and the string quartet 
were to become the pivot on which the whole orchestra rested ; 
in the course of the succeeding centuries, all the instruments 
ruthlessly ejected at the beginning of the seventeenth century 
gradually re-enter the orchestra around the quartet, and a 
new order is established. 

For the same economic reasons, choruses were to be elimin- 
ated from Venetian opera. ‘They still appear in 1641 in the 
Didone of Cavalli and the Ritorno d’ Ulisse of Monteverdi, but 
there is none in the Jucoronazione (1642) nor in Cavalli’s 
Egisto. ‘The composer was obliged for these choruses to 
substitute exsembles rendered by the combined voices of the 
actors on the stage. ‘The cantata had been for musicians an 
admirable preparation for this sudden change of habit. With 
all the accustomed flexibility of his genius, Monteverdi 
accepted these changed conditions. ‘‘ Symphonic passages 
and choruses were no longer desired,’”’ writes M. Romain 
Rolland, ‘‘ so he wrote no more of them. He was typical of 
that great race of Latin artists who can always accommodate 
their genius to practical conditions.” * 


* See Note 155. 


182 MONTEVERDI AT VENICE 


In the autumn of 1642, [/ Nerone ossia [Incoronaztone dt 
Poppea was played in the theatre of SS. Giovanni e Paolo. 
Monteverdi and the poet Francesco Busenello collaborated 
in the work. ‘The latter was a librettist after Monteverdi’s 
own heart. Great power of imagination, a fine faculty for 
realistic observation combined with great vigour of expression, 
these were qualities which served the composer well. From 
the strictly dramatic point of view, the Jucoronazione di Poppea 
may be regarded as the unrivalled masterpiece of the new 
genre, the historical opera. 

The action is divided into a large number of scenes distri- 
buted into three acts. 

In Act I, Otho, the lover of Poppea, returns from a journey, 
and goes by night to his mistress’s house, trembling with joy 
at the thought of seeing her again. 


EXxaMPLE 71 





E pur io torno e pur io torno qui qual li- neaal cen - tro 


The music reflects intimately the meaning of the text, and 
is moulded upon the words. This is not the Florentine 
recitative, nor is it melody in symmetrical periods: it is the 
arioso, finely elaborated, of finished workmanship, such as 
may be found in the cantatas of the epoch, but with an additional 
element, which is the stamp of genius. As Otho is about to 
cross the threshold he stumbles over a sleeping man, and 
recognizes him to be one of Nero’s guards. He understands, 
and, in his grief, utters angry complaints. ‘The soldiers are 
awakened by the disturbance and call, ‘‘ Who speaks? Who 
goes there?’’ Otho disappears into the night, and the two 
sentinels, with mutual excuses for having slept, begin a dialogue 
of astonishing realism, in which they bewail their own fate 


THE VENETIAN OPERAS 133 


_ and the state of Rome. The day dawns, and Nero appears on 
the threshold, accompanied by Poppea, who embraces him and 
tenderly holds him back. From their first words, the characters 
are defined with remarkable vigour, that of Poppea especially, 
a woman more ambitious than passionate and above all frivolous 
and wanton. One feels in her caressing voca/ises her affecta- 
tion and her desire for admiration. Nero isa toy in her hands. 
It is Monteverdi who, in this scene, has given life to the 
dialogue by interrupting Nero’s narration with eager questions. 
The whole scene is treated in cantata style. Arias and songs 
alternate, linked by ariosi and recitatives with such skill that 
instead of an impression of a mosaic of fragments, we have 
the feeling that here is a mighty whole powerfully welded 
together. This is characteristic of the entire opera. 

The scene changes. Beneath the porch of a palace, Octavia 
laments her fate in a recitative full of nobility and energy. 
Offended in her wifely dignity, she conceives the idea of 
revenging herself upon Poppea and Nero. ‘The character of 
Octavia, a great Roman lady, proud and torn by jealousy, 
is admirably rendered. Seneca appears and offers her moral 
consolation. He is a strange figure, certainly attractive in his 
nobility and uprightness, but unable to resist the sound of his 
own voice, and fixed in an attitude of stoic virtue which he 
will maintain unto death. All this is expressed rather by 
Monteverdi’s music than by Busenello’s text. Seneca speaks 
grandiloquently, and the pompous way in which he preaches 
resignation to the unfortunate Octavia is a little ridiculous. 
Octavia’s young page, who is at once ingenuous, cunning and 
ardent, can make nothing of all this. He grows angry, and 
replies sharply to the philosopher; calling his fine speeches 
nonsense, and threatening childish revenge. ‘The fury of the 
irreverent page is expressed with dazzling verve. 

Octavia leaves the stage, and Seneca is meditating the lot 
of the great ones of the earth when the Goddess Pallas appears 


184 MONTEVERDI AT VENICE 


to him and announces his approaching death. However, 
Nero appears, and a moving dialogue begins. In a few brief 
words, Nero acquaints his tutor with his decision to repudiate 
Octavia and to wed Poppea. Seneca tries to dissuade him, 
but Nero, whose nervousness is evident from the opening of 
the scene by the hesitating way in which he speaks, and by the 
way in which he constantly repeats himself, enters into a fury, 
an opportunity which allows Monteverdi to write a page in the 
concitato style which is his invention. Nero, exasperated by 
Seneca’s worthy replies and wise counsels, dismisses him. 
Poppea immediately enters, as though she had been spying for 
the philosopher’s departure. Cajoling, seductive, playfully 
rebellious, she approaches the Emperor, who is pale with 
rage, and tenderly recalls the memory of their last night of 
love. Nero is moved. Profiting by her lover’s distress, 
Poppea cleverly gets him to order Seneca’s death. Shakespeare 
himself could not better have depicted the contrast between 
these characters than Monteverdi has done with the aid of 
Busenello: Nero, impetuous, brutal, sacrificing everything to 
sensual satisfaction; Poppea, the incarnation of feminine 
coquetry, cunning and ambitious. 

Otho has arrived towards the end of the conversation and, 
from a hiding-place, has heard everything, He bitterly 
reproaches Poppea, who receives his complaints coldly. She 
leaves him to his despair. ‘Then enters Drusilla, one of 
Octavia’s maids of honour, who has long loved Otho secretly. 
In his desire to forget Poppea, Otho lavishes promises of love 
upon Drusilla. Left alone, he reflects sadly, “‘ I speak but of 
Drusilla, I think but of Poppea.”’ 

Act II opens somewhat frigidly with the apparition of 
Mercury to Seneca. The god announces his death but 
promises him immortality. Then the captain of the Pretorian 
guard appears, and, with precaution, tells the philosopher of 
Nero’s decision. ‘Then follows the celebrated scene in which 


ee 


THE VENETIAN OPERAS 185 


Seneca cheerfully informs his friends of his departure for 
Olympus. ‘The servants mourn in a chromatic chorus which 
is powerfully effective, but Seneca bids them be silent, and 
orders them to prepare the bath in which he is to open his 
veins. 

To relieve the tension, we are transported, in the next 
scene, to a gallery in Nero’s palace, in which Octavia’s page 
teases a pretty serving-maid and asks her, with feigned naiveté, 
why he is so troubled in her presence. 


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The Damigella promises to cure him. ‘This duet is incon- 
testably the masterpiece of the canzonetta style in drama. 
There are to be found a little later, in the work of Marco 
Marazzoli and Giacopo Melani, dialogues written in this 
witty, light, graceful and playful style, but none reaches so 
high a degree of perfection. ‘The Page of the Jucoronazione 
has often been compared with Cherubino, but that is a grave 
misconception. Doubtless, he is as susceptible as Cherubino, 
but there is nothing sentimental in his ardour; he is purely 
sensual, and one must not be taken in by his protestations of 
ignorance. 

The following scene shows us Nero among his familiars, 
Lucian, Petronius, Tigellinus. They lie on couches round 
the banqueting table. ‘‘ Now that Seneca is dead,” begins 
Nero, “‘ let us sing to Love; ” and he utters passionate vocalises 
in which the voice of Lucian first mingles, then predominates. 
The poet celebrates in ornate style the graces of Poppea; 


186 MONTEVERDI AT VENICE 


Nero, enchanted, with tears in his eyes, intersperses his favour- 
ite’s song with delirious exclamations. 


EXAMPLE 73 


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The next scene takes place in Octavia’s apartments. Otho, 
his heart torn by jealousy, meditates the death of Poppea. 
Octavia appears, and asks him to rid her of her rival. Otho 
is troubled, and at first hesitates, but in the end promises to 
obey. 

In the garden of her villa, Poppea falls asleep to dream of 
the throne. Arnolta the nurse lulls her with an exquisite 
song.* Otho, disguised as Drusilla, creeps towards Poppea ; 
his courage fails him, but he has just resolved to strike the 
fatal blow, when Love awakens Poppea, who utters a cry. 
The nurse rushes in and urges on the slaves to hunt down the 
criminal. 

Act III, which is shorter than the preceding acts, shows the 
arrest of Drusilla for the attempted murder, and her interroga- 
tion by Nero, who threatens her with the most dire punish- 

* See Note. 156. 





THE VENETIAN OPERAS 187 


ments. Drusilla, to save her lover, accepts the accusation, 
and is ready to be led to death, when Otho throws himself at 
the Emperor’s feet and reveals the truth. Busenello gave no 
words to Drusilla in this scene, but Monteverdi, to intensify 
the dramatic interest, makes her constantly interrupt with 
denials the narration of her lover. Otho, to palliate his crime, 
weakly reveals that he has only carried out the Empress’s 
commands. Nero, delighted to have found at last a reason 
for repudiating Octavia, punishes Otho with exile only. 
Drusilla will accompany him, and this punishment will mean 
happiness for them. A voluptuous love-duet between Nero 
and Poppea terminates this scene. In Scene VI, Octavia 
sings her farewell to Rome. ‘This is one of the most famous 
passages in the opera, and is the most frequently heard in 
concert programmes. Octavia’s complaint is akin to the 
Lament of Ariadne, but the style has not that archaic stiffness 
which is not the least attractive element of the Lament. It has 
become softer. The periods of the discourse obey a kind of 
symmetry; it is rather a dramatic air than a recitative, yet 
there is profound realism in its details. ‘The unfortunate 
woman, choked with tears, is at first unable to speak; she 
falters : 


EXAMPLE 74 





A-A---A---Adio Roma A-A - --=Adio patria A -- A -mi-ci 


Bold dissonances enhance the poignant quality of her 
complaint. This is pure feeling expressed in the most 
immediate yet the most harmonious fashion. Grief has 
become music. 

Scene VIII is a vast historical tableau. Nero invites 
Poppea to mount the steps of the throne. She wavers now, 
overcome with the weight of all this honour, and seems to fear 


188 MONTEVERDI AT VENICE 


a reverse of fortune. Having nothing more to desire, she is 
to know fear. ‘This feeling is admirably rendered by the air 
Il mio genio confuso, which she sings to humble herself before 
her lover, and to express her gratitude. Nero sings his radiant 
love to a very free passacaglia rhythm (without ground-bass). 
A symphony bursts out, a true triumphal march to which 
advance the Consuls and the Tribunes, who solemnly crown 
Poppea. Busenello followed up this scene with an apotheosis 
of Love on Olympus, but Monteverdi has preferred to close 
the drama with a love-duet between Nero and Poppea. ‘This 
duet offers curious analogies with that of Ulysses and Tele- 
machus in the Ritorno d’Ulisse, but is quite different in spirit. 
It is a page of voluptuous ardour; the voices, murmuring 
words of love, interweave, seek each other, embrace, in pas- 
sionate effusions. The powerful sensuality of the aged 
Monteverdi is expressed in this passage in the same way as 
Titian’s in his last pictures. 


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We have already had occasion to emphasize the psychological 
truth of the characters. They all live intensely. As in real 
life, comedy and tragedy are seen side by side. ‘The idle talk 
of the nurse Arnolta, the heedless chatter of the page contrast 
with the stilted gestures and pompous language of Seneca; the 
coquetry of Poppea with the pride of Octavia. We can 
realize the truth of G. D. Doni’s remark that Monteverdi was 
even greater in comedy than in tragedy. By comedy, he 


THE VENETIAN OPERAS 189 


understood familiar drama drawn from life. A drama such 
as Shakespeare’s ulius Cesar can alone sustain comparison 
with the Jucoronazione for the impression of reality given by 
the action. Monteverdi has seen Imperial Rome with the 
eyes of genius, and has been able to recreate it for us. No book, 
no chronicle, could bring Nero and Poppea so vigorously 
home to us as this opera. 

The work contains a synthesis of all Monteverdi’s finest 
qualities.* His technique was never richer, more satisfying. 
Every element is here combined, inexhaustible invention in 
the melody, expressive force and audacity in the harmonic 
structure. There is no praise too great for the balance estab- 
lished between the new melodic forms (airs of various forms, 
canzoni and canzonette) and the recitative, without which fine 
pieces of music can exist, but not a musical drama. 

L’ Incoronazione is the masterpiece of Italian drama in the 
seventeenth century, and a masterpiece which established a 
tradition. It marks the triumph in Venice of the historical 
opera which had been inaugurated by Cavalli. Mythological 
and pastoral subjects were thrown aside. Francesco Cavalli 
developed the principle of the Jucoronazione to its farthest 
results. In particular, he developed the comic element which 
Monteverdi had used with as much felicity as sobriety. 

The Incoronazione was played in the principal towns of Italy, 
and was chosen for the inauguration of the first public opera- 
house opened at Naples in 1651. In 1646, three years after 
the master’s death, the work was revived with great success 
in Venice. Even to-day it gives an impression of vigour 
and radiant youth. The caprice of fashion is powerless against 
it, and it remains one of the most precious ornaments of 
musical drama. 

* See Note 157. 


VI 
LAST YEARS AND DEATH 


Tue only portrait of Monteverdi we possess, which figures 
as the frontispiece of the Fiort Poetict published in his honour 
in 1644, shows him as he must have been at about sixty years 
of age. An energetic countenance, a high forehead crowned 
with short thick hair, a thin face barred by a moustache, a 
chin elongated by a short greyish beard, a long nose, and, 
beneath thick eyebrows, great black eyes whose dreamy, 
melancholy expression contrasts with the resolute impression 
given by the whole face. In the vast forehead there is the 
sign of powerful will, but the whole portrait gives the impres- 
sion of profound sadness. ‘This may be the author of the 
Arianna and the Orfeo ; it is difficult to believe that it is the 
author of the amorous madrigals, of the voluptuous songs. 
One cannot believe that that mouth has ever smiled. Weare 
in the presence of a man whose soul is worn with grief, who 
can never know joy again. That this man, who was for the 
greater part of his life profoundly unhappy, who seems to have 
led a chaste, orderly life, could, by the force of his genius, 
have composed so many lively songs, so many playful and 
witty madrigals, so much music overflowing with sensual 
pleasure, this is hard to conceive, and, indeed, it is one of the 
mysteries of genius. Handel and Mozart too, in their dire 
distress, could create a world of joy and light. 

From Monteverdi’s correspondence, we get the impression 
of a lively intelligence, of a penetrating mind, prompt to seize 
the weak point of an argument. He seems to have received 

190 





apt YEARS AND: DEATH 191 


a good education in his youth, but most of his culture was self- 
acquired. He writes with a certain difficulty. His sentences 
are long and ill-formed, yet there are sudden images and 
expressions which strike the imagination. As he says in one 
of his letters, he is ignorant of the art of translating his thoughts 
into a precise, concise style ; to say what he has to say, he must 
cover much paper, but he forgets nothing, and his arguments 
are irresistible. His sound common sense can be perceived 
in all his remarks. Moreover, his correspondence confirms 
the impression given by the portrait—of a man grave, almost 
austere, without gaiety. If he meets with a difficulty, if he 
feels that a slight injustice has been done him, he is resentful, 
and speaks with concentrated bitterness. One feels that he is 
proud, very sure of his genius, conscious of the rights which 
it confers upon him. His letters to the sovereigns, once 
stripped of the consecrated formule of politeness, are full of 
dignity and nobility. Occasionally he will request a favour 
which he considers he has deserved, but he always refuses to 
beg it with servility, as was then the custom. JDesiring to 
obtain the canonicate of Cremona, where he wished to end his 
days in peace, he refuses to use the letters of recommendation 
given to him for the Empress Eleanora di Gonzaga by her 
brother the Duke of Mantua. ‘These letters describe his 
situation too gloomily, and he is humiliated by them. “I 
am not rich,” he writes to Striggio, “but I am not poor 
either,” * and he describes the advantages of his office in 
Venice, where his salary is paid with absolute regularity every 
two months, not to speak of accessory payments he receives 
for music composed for private citizens. He is no man to 
speak of his poverty without reason, and the court of Mantua 
must, in 1609, have shown him base ingratitude to make him 
quit his haughty reserve.’ 

One feels that it is extremely painful to him to be obliged 

* See Note 158. 


192 MONTEVERDI AT VENICE 


continually to make complaints in order to receive payment of 
the pension bequeathed him by the Duke Vincenzo. He begs 
no favour, but claims a strict right, and feels very bitter at 
being obliged to have recourse to the intervention of his 
friend Striggio. 

Though a self-educated man, yet his culture was profound. 
He knew the classics, read and meditated Plato, and drew 
from him new ideas on art. His literary taste was sure, his 
dramatic instinct infallible. Monteverdi lived to create and 
to act. His power of work was formidable. At Venice, the 
headaches caused by the fever-laden air of Mantua ceased, 
but his health remained precarious. During the winter of 
1623 an attack of rheumatism completely crippled him; he 
could not move a limb. On several occasions he contracted 
chills which went to his eyes. In 1627 and in 1638 he could 
neither write nor read, a privation which was intolerable to 
him, for he brooked no restriction of his activity. 

Ceaselessly occupied with his compositions, his only diver- 
sion was to conduct at St. Mark’s the rehearsals of a motet, 
or to take part in the celebration of a service. During the 
last years of his life he was obliged, in addition, to supervise 
the performances of his operas. In four years there were 
performed in Venice L’ddone, Le Nozze d’Enea, L’ Arianna, 
Il Ritorno d’Ulisse, and L’Incoronazione di Poppea; but he 
nevertheless had time to publish in 1641 the voluminous 
collection of the Se/va Morale, and to write a ballet for the court 
of Parma. He also managed to direct the chapels of several 
private citizens. In 1620 he conducted music three times a 
week in the Oratory of the Primiciero of St. Mark’s, and gave 
real concerts at the house of his patron, the noble Mocenigo. 
But this is not all. He carried on an active correspondence 
with several princely courts, for whom he procured singers and 
instrumentalists ; for, owing to his reputation as judge of such 


matters, many had recourse to him in case of need.* He was 
* See Note 159. 


Pao rt LARS AND? DEATH 193 


always willing to help. He put himself to much trouble to 
procure actors for Giustinian ; he supervised the printing of a 
book by the Duke of Bracciano, Paolo Orsini, a passionate 
lover of music who was also something of a poet, and had 
formerly given Monteverdi a kindly welcome in Rome.* 
He also had disciples to whom he gave advice, if not regular 
lessons. Rovetta, Cavalli, G. C. Bianchi, seem to have worked 
under his direction. 

To get a fair idea of his astonishing activity, one must 
peruse the considerable number of letters which we possess 
for the year 1627. In April he is occupied in setting to 
music both the scene of Armida and Rinaldo from ‘Tasso, 
and the opera La Finta Pazza Licori which he is writing for 
Mantua. A short time after come the interludes for the 
fétes at Parma, and the tournament Mercurio e Marte. In 
October he has to arrange the solemn festivals at Chioggia, 
ordered by the Senate to commemorate the victory of Lepanto. 
He naturally continues to direct the Chapel of St. Mark’s, 
and is even obliged to return to Venice from a stay at Parma 
in order to conduct the Christmas Mass. As if that were 
not enough, he agrees to correct the proofs of a new edition 
of the madrigals of Arcadelt,t the great Flemish master, in 
whose work he loves the simplicity of style, the transparent 
harmonies, the broad, well-defined melody. 

His letters show him in a state of positively feverish activity. 
He has a hundred ideas, and, whilst continually creating music, 
supervises all the details of its performance, recommends a 
singer for a part, or goes himself to Parma in order to get a 
first-hand idea of the dimensions of the hall in which the 
tournament is to take place. One wonders how he could bear 
up under such mental strain, such physical effort, and yet 
in this very year he complains that he is suffering from a film 
over his eye. 


* See Note 160. tT See Note 161. 
O 


194 MONTEVERDI AT VENICE 


Monteverdi seemed not to know what rest or amusement 
was. His only recreation was alchemy. As soon as he had 
a moment’s leisure, he occupied it with seeking the great 
secret. He was very proud of having fused gold with 
mercury, but seems otherwise to have had few illusions as to 
the success of his experiments.* 

Whilst it was difficult for him to be absent from Venice 
for any length of time, he obtained leave for short journeys 
to neighbouring districts. “Thus on several occasions he went 
to Mantua on business; perhaps his pension was not paid, 
and, his letters remaining without effect, he was obliged 
to make the journeys to obtain payment of arrears; on other 
occasions he had family business to settle. In 1624 his 
father-in-law, Giacomo Cataneo, the violist, died in Mantua, 
bequeathing to Monteverdi’s children his house on the Via del 
Mastrino and his furniture, which, among other objects, 
comprised some thirty musical instruments. A second heir 
disputed the will, and Monteverdi was obliged to solicit the 
Duke in person before he could enter into possession. ‘The 
litigation lasted over a year. 

It was particularly to Bologna that Monteverdi mae 
frequent visits. He was publicly welcomed there on June 13th, 
1620, the day of St. Anthony, patron-saint of Lombardy, by 
the Members of the Floridi de San Michele in Bosco. His 
friend and rival, Adriano Banchieri, arranged an enthusiastic 
reception for him. 

His two sons studied in turn at Bologna, and this was the 
reason for several short visits which Monteverdi made to that 
university. 

His elder son, Francesco, born in 1600, had at first been 
intended for the Church. Monteverdi had tried in 1610 
to enter him at the seminary in Rome, with a scholarship, 
but he had not been able to obtain this favour from the Pope, 

* See Note 162. Tt See Note 163. 





Pool YEARSTAND DEATH 195 


and Francesco had remained with him in Venice, along with 
his brother Massimiliano, who was five years younger. 

Monteverdi supervised attentively the education of his 
children.* He had a tutor for them, and made great sacri- 
fices for their studies. Although he taught them music, he 
had no idea of seeing them take it up asacareer. He wished 
to make Francesco a lawyer and Massimiliano a doctor. 
Francesco hada fine tenor voice, and gradually became so 
passionately attached to music that his father had to resign 
himself to seeing him abandon law. In 1619, Francesco, 
who was studying at Bologna in the monastery of the Servite 
Fathers, suddenly decided to take Orders, and became a 
Carmelite monk. This decision did nothing to impede his 
musical career—quite the contrary. 

It must not be forgotten that at this time it was not rare 
to see a monk singin the theatre. Padre Filippo Melani, a 
castrato of the order of the Servites, even went to Paris in 1660 
to sing the rdle of Queen Amestris, lover of King Xerxes. 

Monteverdi had his son admitted as tenor to the Chapel 
of St. Mark’s on July 1st, 1623. Francesco had already 
sung there on occasions; in particular, he had sung with 
considerable success in April 1615. Francesco Monteverdi 
was destined to be one of the most brilliant of the virtuosi of 
the Chapel. He also acquired some reputation as a composer, 
and, as early as 1624, Milanuzzi’s collection contained some 
agreeable canzoni of his composition. 

Massimiliano had been educated at Bologna, first at the 
seminary, then at the college of the Cardinal di Montalto, to 
which he had been admitted on the recommendation of the 
Duchess of Mantua.t Having obtained his university 
degrees, he established himself in Mantua in 1623, and 
thenceforth practised his profession there. He was curious 
of astrology and secret sciences. In December 1627 he was 


* See Note 164. © tT See Note 165. 


196 MONTEVERDI AT VENICE 


denounced to the Inquisition for possessing forbidden books, 
and thrown into prison. Count Striggio, who had intervened 
on his behalf immediately Monteverdi appealed to him, had 
hard work to get him released from the Inquisitorial prison. 

This affair caused Monteverdi grave concern. He had 
spent too many happy years in Venice, and, as he said himself, 
fate never failed to mingle bitterness with the few favours 
she granted him. He received two pieces of bad news at 
the same time, the arrest of his son and the death of the Duke 
of Mantua after a reign of fourteen months. With Vincenzo, 
the dynasty of the Gonzagas of Mantua died out. A younger 
branch of the family was to succeed. What could Monteverdi 
hope for from the new Duke, Charles de Nevers, who had spent 
most of his life in France? It is quite comprehensible that 
he should have felt some anxiety about the pension of a 
hundred crowns which formed the basis of his personal income. 
But Charles loved music as much as did his predecessors. He 
confirmed Monteverdi in his pension, which he converted into 
a permanent annuity.* But events stultified his good inten- 
tions. Charles had scarcely spent three years in Mantua 
when he was obliged to take flight before the Imperial armies. 
In spite of its ramparts, its natural defences, its marshes, the 
town was taken and sacked on July 18th, 1630, by the Imperial 
troops. For several days the conquerors gave themselves, 
up to murder, pillage, burning and rapine. A large part of 
the population was annihilated, the churches profaned, the 
monuments and houses devastated by fire. 

The news produced a feeling of profound horror, not only 
throughout Italy, but throughout Europe. Rubens wrote to 
Peiresc, ‘‘ My grief is extreme, for I have long served the 
house of Gonzaga, and, in my youth, have enjoyed the delights 
of living in their country.” Whilst Monteverdi had had less 
cause for gratitude to the Gonzagas than Rubens, he must have 

* See Note 166. 





LAST YEARS AND DEATH 197 


been profoundly moved by the calamity which had overtaken 
the country in which a decisive phase of his existence had been 
passed. It was in Mantua that he had first known fame, that 
he had been married, that he had produced the Arianna and 
the Orfeo, which still lived in the public memory. It was in 
Mantua that he had most passionately loved, suffered, 
struggled. Hecould not remain indifferent to the misfortunes 
of a city which he regarded as his second and beloved home: 
“ Questa patria da me amata.” * From the financial point 
of view, the ruin of Mantua involved the cessation of the 
pension which he had had so much difficulty in obtaining, 
and compromised certain interests which he still held in the 
town. 

But the grief which he felt at the terrible news soon gave 
place to other preoccupations ; plague was enveloping Venice. 
For nearly a year, from the end of 1630 to the autumn of 
the following year, the malady ravaged the town. Nearly 
one-third of the population perished. Monteverdi made a 
vow to the Madonna di Loretta to make her a pilgrimage of 
grace if he escaped. 

On November 28th, 1631, there was sung at St. Mark’s 
a solemn Requiem composed by Monteverdi to render thanks 
for the end of the plague. We know that this mass was 
written in the modern style, and that trombones accompanied 
the Gloria and the Credo. During this terrible trial, Monte- 
verdi had re-entered into himself. His religious faith had 
grown stronger. He decided to take Orders, after the example 
of many of the Maestri di Cappella who had preceded him. 
But his ordination brought no change in the conditions of his 
creative activity. It was at this time that Monsignor Rospi- 
gliosi, who later became Pope Clement XI, wrote for his 
patrons, the Cardinals Barberini, operatic libretti, occasionally 
on religious, but more frequently on amorous subjects. 

* See Note 167. 


198 MONTEVERDI AT VENICE 


Monteverdi therefore continued to compose madrigals and 
operas, and there is no reason to believe that he devoted himself 
more particularly to religious music after his ordination. 

He continued to meditate profoundly upon his art. ‘The 
preface to the Madrigal guerrieri et amorosi is sufficient proof 
of this. Four years earlier, he had been engaged upon a book, 
some details of which are contained in two letters, addressed, 
probably, to G. B. Doni in 1633 and 1634.* He wished at 
last to publish the work announced in the preface of Book V 
of the Madrigals, which his brother had commented in advance 
in the manifesto which prefaced the Scherzi Musicali. The 
title was to be Melodia, overo seconda pratica musicale. 
This work was to be divided into three parts, the first treating 
of discourse, the second of harmony, the third of rhythm, and 
the whole book was to illustrate the principle of the imitation 
of nature. 

When one knows Monteverdi’s work, and has some 
acquaintance with his correspondence, it is easy to form an 
idea of what this book would have been. Yet it would have 
been interesting to see the systematic exposition of the under- 
lying ideas which an analysis of the work of the great musician 
reveals. The title alone is sufficient to prove that Monteverdi 
wished to demonstrate that the reign of counterpoint considered 
as an end in itself was over, and that melody must succeed 
polyphony. This involved a whole theory of dramatic expres- 
sion and of the manner of rendering ideas and images by means 
of melody, harmony, and rhythm. We have, moreover, had 
occasion to recognize these foundations of Monteverdi’s 
doctrine in considering the dramatic madrigals and the operas. 


* * * * * * 


During the last twenty years of his life, Monteverdi had 
at least the satisfaction of seeing his genius universally recog- 
* See Note 168. 





LAST YEARS AND DEATH 199 


nized and admired. “ Age, which is decadence for ordinary 
beings, is, for men of genius, an apotheosis.” * His fame 
spread throughout Italy, and his name was celebrated abroad. 
Heinrich Schutz, marvelling at the originality of the work 
of the “ingenious” master, came to visit him in Venice in 
1628, and composed in his honour one of his spiritual songs 
on the themes of the two ariettas for two voices published in the 
collection of the Scherzi Musicali in 1632 +: Zefiro torna and 
Armato il cor. Pretorius in Germany, Huyghens and Albert 
Ban in Holland, ‘Thomas Gobert and Mersenne in France, 
studied his work with curiosity and admiration.f The 
French violinist Maugars, who was travelling in Italy in 1639, 
acclaimed in him the inventor “ of a new and most admirable 
manner of composition both for instruments and for voices,”’ 
and considered him “ one of the first composers in the world.” 
His influence extended throughout Europe. In England he 
had disciples, Tomkins and Walter Porter, both of whom 
reveal his influence.§ 

His madrigals were published by P. Phalese in Antwerp, 
and even in Denmark, and his sacred or secular compositions 
are to be found scattered in numerous collections published in 
Germany. His popularity in the Teutonic countries was 
so great that he was frequently invited there, but he does 
not seem to have left Italy during the last years of his life. 

In his native country he was practically without a rival. 
Only Domenico Mazzocchi, Gagliano or Giacopo Peri were 
sometimes quoted along with him. ‘The last-named expressed 
the most sincere admiration for Monteverdi’s work, and did 
not escape from his influence. It is evident in many airs of 
his last period, and particularly in a great dramatic narration, 
Uccidimi dolore, which is constructed practically on the same 
plan as the Lamento d’ Arianna. For that matter, traces of 


* See Note 169. t See Note 170. t See Note 171. 
§ See Note 172. {See Note 173. 


200 MONTEVERDI AT VENICE 


Monteverdi’s influence may be seen in the work of a host of 
musicians of the epoch, particularly in that of the strange Claudio 
Saraceni, who, in 1620, dedicated to Monteverdi a pathetic 
air from his Seconde Musiche ; * in that of Kapsberger, and of 
Rovetta, who openly proclaimed himself his disciple. Even 
those who remained faithful to the madrigalesque style, such 
as Adriano Banchieri, admired him. ‘The imitation of. the 
master’s methods is chiefly to be seen in the search for the 
passionate expression of emotion, and in the use of bold modu- 
lations and chromatics. His exceptional power of emotional 
expression strikes all his contemporaries. Caberlotti expressly 
says that Claudio is the only musician with all emotions at 
his command, who can at will awaken them in the heart of his 
audience: “* Who can withhold his tears when listening to the 
complaint of the unhappy Ariadne? Who can refuse to 
respond to the joy of his madrigals and his exquisite Scherzi ? 
Who can fail to feel true religious devotion in hearing his sacred 
compositions? Can he whose ears are charmed by his 
spiritual and moral songs not meditate a more orderly life? 
And in the variety of the works performed on the occasion of 
princely weddings or in the theatres of Venice, do not the 
emotions expressed change at every moment? At the very 
moment of laughter, tears arise, and when the mind is inspired 
by revenge, by some new variation, a suave harmony 
disposes the heart to mercy.” 

By the side of these tempered praises, panegyrics abound. 
Badoaro having produced in 1644 a second opera on the 
subject of Ulysses, Ulisse errante, testifies in these pompous 
terms to the sorrow he felt at the death of his first collaborator. 
“Il Ritorno d’Ulisse was adorned with music by Claudio 
Monteverdi, an artist of supreme glory, and one whose name 
will live for ever. From this present work that splendour is 
absent, for the great master has departed to chant with the 

* See Note 174. | 





moody LARS AND DEATH 201 


angels the praises of God. But as compensation, we have the 
glorious productions of Francesco Sacrati, and indeed it was 
necessary that the sun should set before the glories of the 
moon could be perceived.” * 

To tell the truth, the innumerable poems, sonnets or songs 
composed in his praise by the poets and musicians of the epoch 
attest his personal popularity rather than anything else, for 
very mediocre composers were at that time extolled in dithy- 
rambic language. The verses of Bellerofante Castaldi, and 
the Fiori Poetici offer, however, a certain interest in that they 
give us some information about the last years of Monteverdi. 
The Laconismo delle alte qualita di Claudio Monteverdi by 
Caberlotti in particular gives us some details of the circum- 
stances of his death. 


In the spring of 1643, Monteverdi, then seventy-five 
years old, felt his strength failing. ‘Tortured with the desire 
to revisit Cremona and some other cities which he had not 
seen for many years, he asked for leave, and set out with the 
Procurators’ permission. For six months he travelled in 
Lombardy, receiving everywhere a triumphant welcome. 
Perhaps he hoped, by personal intervention, to receive the 
canonicate of Cremona for which he had applied unsuccess- 
fully in 1627, and the revenues of which had now become 
necessary to him if he wished to retire to his native town. He 
knew very well that the time of rest was come. But he realized 
it too late. He fell ill on the way and, “ like the swan who, 
feeling his end near, returns to the water,” he desired to reach 
Venice to die in peace. He did not linger long, and died 
after twenty days of fever on November 29th, 1643. 

The death of the great musician brought sorrow to the whole 
of Venice. He was mourned by all who had known him. 

* See Note 175. 


202 MONTEVERDI AT VENICE 


He was given a splendid funeral. ‘The church of the Frari 
was resplendent with candles. ‘The best singers of the town 
took part in the mass conducted by G. B. Marinoni, sur- 
named Giove (Jupiter), his old travelling-companion of the 
Hungarian voyage, and one of the competitors for his place. 
The body was interred in the chapel of the Lombards, dedicated 
to St. Anthony. At St. Mark’s, G. Rovetta, who was to 
succeed him, had another solemn mass sung in his honour 
in the presence of a vast and reverent crowd. One can say 
that the death of Monteverdi was a public sorrow.* His 
funeral oration was pronounced by the senators Di Marco 
and Boleano, and for two years poets composed sonnets and 
elegies to the glory of the great departed. 

Yet he was soon forgotten. By the end of the seventeenth 
century his name was scarcely mentioned. People were 
convinced that music was a new invention and that nothing 
counted if it were more than twenty years old. Only a few 
learned contrapuntists preserved his madrigals and motets 
as curiosities, admiring their prodigious technique. In the 
eighteenth century, G. B. Martini published some examples 
in his treatise, with judicious notes. Burney quoted with 
astonishment the boldness of his harmonies, and rightly drew 
attention to them. 

It was only in the second half of the nineteenth century 
that Monteverdi ceased to be a mere name bandied about 
among musical historians, who knew nothing of the man nor 
of his work. Fétis, La Fage, Padre Caf, Davari, Ambros, 
later Vogel, Goldschmidt, Solerti, and above all, Romain 
Rolland, have restored Monteverdi to his true place, which is 
the foremost of his century. MM. Vincent d’Indy has pub- 
lished important fragments of the Orfeo and the Jucoronazione 
translated into French, and has had them performed by 
pupils of the Schola Cantorum. ‘The whole of the dramatic 

* See Note 176, 





Past YRKAKS AND DEATH 203 


work will shortly be published in its entirety, and it is to be 
hoped that the publication of the madrigals, songs, masses 
and motets will one day follow. 

This immense work is inexhaustible. It astonishes by 
its richness as by its incredible variety. Yet the personality 
of Monteverdi gives to this work, written in styles not only 
different but incongruous, a surprising unity. Everything 
bears the mark of his genius; the contrapuntal motets, the 
madrigals with their barbaric dissonances, the graceful 
canzonette, the dramatic narrations. ‘The slightest arietta 
by Monteverdi has so peculiar a quality that the composer can 
be recognized in the very first bars. For, if the methods 
change, the essential quality of the music does not change. 
As M. Andre Suarés has so justly said, “ No artist has ever 
been more conscious of his art than Monteverdi.” From 
his youth onwards he pursued an ideal which never changed: 
the translation of human passions and ideas into the language 
of sound. The music of Monteverdi, like that of Bach, is 
never empty of thought and feeling; it does not find its end 
in itself, but in the emotions it expresses. His vehement soul 
is revealed entire, with its passionate sadness, its powerful 
sensuality, its love of life; for this great Latin artist, who 
suffered so greatly, preserved to the end that love and feeling 
for life. This is doubtless the reason why even to-day his 
music has for us the irresistible attraction of life itself. 





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APPENDICES 


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INNO MEI mhee 


(1) The birth certificate has been published by Vogel. 

(2) Cf. G. Sommi Picenardi, Claudio Monteverdi a Cremona (Ricordi). ‘This 
pamphlet of 36 pages contains all the documents so far discovered con- 
cerning the family of Monteverdi and the youth of the musician. 

(3) Davari, Claudio Monteverdi, p. 4. 

(4) Scotti, [zinerario d'Italia, Roma, 1650, p. 166. 

(5) Baldassare Monteverdi had five children: Claudio (1567), Maria Domitia 
(1571), Giulio Cesare (1573), Clara Massimilia (1579), and Luca (1581). Sommi 
Picenardi has published their birth certificates. 

(6) The authorship has been definitely established by Haberl, who has 
drawn attention to the Venetian edition of 1588, published under the name of 
Ingegneri during the lifetime of the author. See Michel Brenet’s Palestrina, 
pp. 136—140. 

(7) “‘ Et 10 non devo aspettare . . . di compositiont cost giovenili come son 
queste mie altre lode che quelle che si suole dare at_fiort di primavera.” Dedication 
of the First Book of Madrigali a cinque voci di Claudio Monteverde Cremonese 
Discopolo dal Sig. Marc Antonio Ingegnerit . . . in Venetia. 

Appresso Angelo Gardano M. DLXXXVII (Dantzig Library). 

(8) ** Mz fu acenato di venire a farle riverenza mentre fut a Milano... . 
Vidi 10 affissare Ella il purgato senso al debil moto della mia mano sopra della 
viola.” ‘The dedication to Giacomo Ricardi is dated January Ist, 1§go. 

(9) For Vincenzo, cf. Baschet’s article “‘ Rubens a Mantoue,” Gazette des 
Beaux-Arts, May ist, 1866, and Ademollo, La Bella Adriana, pp. 26 seq. 

(10) Cf. Bertolotti, La Musica in Mantova, pp. 39-46, et passim. 

(11) Gian Giacomo Gastoldi is a very interesting musician, and it is extremely 
regrettable that no general study of his work has as yet been published. Accord- 
ing to Bertolotti, he made his début when a child as singer in Mantua. His 
first work (Canzoni a cinque voct, 1582) is dedicated to the Prince of Mantua. 
In 1582 he was in Rome, devoting himself to the study of the severe style, 
and sent sacred music to the Duke. Then he returned to settle in Mantua. 
About 1591 he was appointed Maestro di Cappella of Santa Barbara, and this 
title figured on the title-page of all his subsequent work, sacred or secular. 
The fact that he retained the title in 1604 is seen by the dedication of the 
Concenti Musicali to the Duke of Mantua, by which we also know that he had 
taken Orders. He seems to have left Mantua after the festivities of 1608, to 
which he had contributed an interlude to the Jdropica. His last collection 
is dated 1611. 

For the bibliography of his works, see Eitner, Vogel, and the catalogue of 
the Library of the Liceo Musicale by Gasparri. 


207 


208 ~~ MONTEVERDI 


(12) Cf. Bertolotti, op. cit. Rovigo’s death certificate states that he was 
sixty-six years old, and refers to him as organist of the cathedral. Monteverdi, 
however, in his letter of November 24th, 1601, mentions his name among the 
successors of Giaches de Wert and seems to regard him as Maestro di Cappella. 

(13) Professor ‘Torelli has had the kindness to search the Mantuan archives 
for the death-certificate of Pallavicini, and has communicated it tome: “* Lunedi 
a di 26 Novembre 1601, M. Benedetto Pallavicint, nelle Contrada di Montenegro, 
& morte di fabre in un mese, de anni No. 50” (Registre dei morti, 1601, p. 178, v.) 

(14) Quoted by Davari, Claudio Monteverdi, p. 5. 

(15) “. . . col nobilissimo essercitio della viola che m1 sparse la fortunata 
porta del suo servizio.” ‘The dedication to the Duke is dated June 27th, 1892. 

(16) Bertolotti gives their names, op. cit., p. 73. That of Monteverdi 
does not appear among them, but there is the name of his father-in-law, Giacomo 
Cattaneo. 

(17) Solerti, Musica, Ballo, Drammatica alla corte medica, p. 49. Corsi 
writes on March 7th, 1598, “‘ Quella Musica concertata e di vari strumenti non 
é in altra luogo.” 

(18) Cf. La Bella Adriana, passim. 

(19) Francesco was born in 1600 and Massimiliano in 1605. 

(20) G. B. Marinone had been in the Duke’s service since 1584, and was one 
of the best bass singers in the chapel. ‘There seems to have been a particularly 
close friendship between him and Monteverdi. He subsequently entered the 
choir of St. Mark’s in Venice, and remained there under the orders of Monte- 
verdi, to whose memory he wrote a panegyric in 1643. In 1644 he was 
appointed Maestro di Cappella of the cathedral of Padua, and remained there 
till his death in 1647. 

Teodoro Bacchino was a Carmelite monk. In 1594 the Duke had asked 
the Superior General of his order for permission for him to travel in a long robe, 
but without a cassock (see Bertolotti, p. 771). Bacchino was a castrato singer 
of wide reputation. He composed several madrigals. 

Serafino Terso, surnamed della Vittoria, was an excellent bass singer. 

(21) Letter from Monteverdi dated December 2nd, 1608 (Davari, p. 18). 
See also his father’s letter, published by Vogel, dated November 27th, 1608. 

(22) For the itinerary and the events of the journey to Spa, see Baschet, 
“ Rubens 4 Mantoue,” Gazette des Beaux-Arts, May, 1866; and Albin Body, 
Le Thédtre et la Musique a Spa, Brussels, 1895 (2nd edition), p. 151 seq. 

(23) “©. . . a canto alla francese in questro moderno modo che per le stampe 
da tre 0 quattro anni in qua si va mirando, hor de madrigali, hor di canzonette 
&F darie chi fu il primo di lui che lo riportasse in Italia di quando venne da li 
bagni di Spa Panno 1599? Et chi incomincio a porlo sotto ad orationt latine a 
vulgart nelle nostra lingua prima di lui?” (1607). 

(24) As early as 1585, Plantin published in Antwerp a book entirely conse- 
crated to the Miscellanies of Claude le Jeune. In 1592, Emm. Adriamson, 
the lutanist, included music by this composer in his Novum Pratum, and finally, 
in 1597 and 1508, Pierre Phalése published Airs by Du Caurroy and Le Jeune 
in Le Rossignol Musical. ‘There are, indeed, few airs in antique metres 
among these pieces, but the fact that compositions by the Parisian school 


NOTES 209 


were sung everywhere in Flanders, permits us to assume that the airs de cour 
and the chansonneties mesurées of the same authors found equal favour. 

(25) In 1571, Adrien le Roy published an arrangement of airs de cour 
for solo-voice with lute tablature. 

(26) Cf. Bertolotti, pp. 93 and 73. 

(27) Du Perron seems to have been a musician. De la Borde quotes an 
air, Sortez de mon esprit, pensers pleins de délices, of which he is supposed to be 
the author. The text is to be found in a printed collection (Res. Bibl. Ye 2055). 

(28) For the experiments of Baif and his collaborators see Le Ballet de Cour 
en France (Paris, Laurens 1914). 

(29) For the history of the Riforma Melodrammatica see the bibliographies 
by Romain Rolland and Angelo Solerti (0p. cit.). 

(30) The Duke of Mantua had first gone to Venice with a large and magnifi- 
cent escort. He arrived there on July 14th, 1600. On the 22nd he tore himself 
from the pleasures of Venice in order to pay a visit to his estates at Montferrat. 
Thence he went to Milan, and on to Florence, where he made a fairly long stay, 
and was present at all the marriage festivities. It is very probable that Monte- 
verdi, who, as we have seen, had accompanied his patron to Hungary and 
Flanders, was also in his escort this time. 

After the festivities the Duke went to Genoa with his wife, Eleanora de’ 
Medici, who was going to accompany her sister, the new Queen, to Marseilles ; 
he awaited the return of the galleys and re-entered his dominions just before 
Christmas. The following summer he went to Hungary again, but this time 
without Monteverdi. 

(31) On the great singer Francesco Rasi and his relations with the courts 
of Mantua and Florence, see Ademollo, La Bella Adriana; and Bertolotti, 
op. cit. 

(32) This is the earliest letter of Monteverdi which has been preserved. 
It has been frequently published. 

(33) Davari, op. cit., p. 8. 

(34) See particularly his eloquent letter of October 27th, 1604. (Letter I.) 

(35) Cf. in the Appendix, Letter II. December 1604. ‘The biographers 
of Monteverdi state that Massimiliano was born in 1605. ‘The letter shows 
that the date is correct. It is quite possible that Monteverdi may have taken 
his wife to Cremona for her confinement in December 1604. 

(36) Iribune de St.-Gervais, Vol. II, p. 117. It is worthy of note that 
Ingegneri’s reputation was maintained during the new generation. His works 
continued to be sung simultaneously with those of the innovators. In 
December 1603, the Duke of Modena charged Alberto Colombo to buy in 
Venice the Madrigals for four and five voices by the aged Ingegneri along 
with those of Monteverdi and Sigismondo d’India (Archives of Modena. 
Musica Busha 4. Bibliografia). 

(37) Madrigal: A che tormi 11 ben mio. 

(38) Madrigal, Ch’ ami la vita mia. 

(39) Published by Torchi, Vol. 4 of L’ Arte Musicale in Italia (Ricordi). 

(40) For the madrigalesque comedy, see M. Romain Rolland’s illuminating 
study in L’Opéra en Europe avant Scarlatti (chap. 2). 

P 


210 MONTEVERDI 


(41) Revue Musicale, June 1924, p. 275. 

(42) Cf. Le Mondain se nourrit toujours de Claude le Feune in the Octonnaire 
de la V anité du Monde (published by Henry Expert. Senart). 

(43) On the influence of French measured music on Monteverdi, see my 
article ‘‘ Monteverdi and French Music”? (The Sackbut, London, October, 1922). 
For music measured by syllabic quantity, see the authoritative study by M. P. M. 
Masson (Revue Musicale, $.I.M., 1907) and M. Henry Expert’s edition (pub- 
lished by Senart) of the works of Claude le Jeune, Mauduit, and Du Caurroy. 

(44) A copy of this very rare work is to be found in the Liceo Musicale of 
Bologna. 

(45) Cf. Solerti, Musica, Ballo, e Drammatica alla Corta Medica, passim, 
and Albori del Melodramma 1, Chap. viii. 

(46) This relates, of course, only to the style of the Euridice. Caccini, in 
point of fact, contributed more largely than any other, in his airs for concert 
performance, to giving melody to the recitative style. ‘The beautiful airs 
Amarilli, Fere, Selvaggie, etc., published in the Nuove Musiche of 1601, are well 
known. , 

(47) Davari, Notizie Biografiche del Monteverdi, p. 9. 

(48) Solerti, Albori del Melodramma, p. 58 seq. 

(49) Orfeo, Edition Malipiero, Chester, pp. 50 and 53. 

(50) Lbid., pp. 87-89. 

(51) Lbid., p. 7. 

(52) Lbid., pp. 105-106. 

(53) Lbid., pp. 33 and 4o. 

(54) Lbid., p. 127. 

(55) Lbid., p. 92. 

(56) Lbid., p. 9. 

(57) Lbid., pp. 53-54. 

(58) The score gives the composition of the orchestra : 

10 viole da brazzo. 

2 violint piccolt alla francese. 

3 basst da gamba. 

2 contrabassi de viola. 

2 gravicemballi. 

I arpa doppia. 

2 chitarront. 

2 organt di legno. 

I regale. 

2 cornettt. 

I flautino alla vigesima seconda. 
I clarino. 

3 trombe sorde. 

4 trombont. ) 

(59) Here is a fragment from this unpublished letter: “ Non voglio mancare 
a offerirmt a servir V.A. comho Servito P Altezzo di Savoia et di Mantova et 
stmilt, anzt perché se tutto quelle che si ha da fare in Torino et Mantova, m offerts 
co fara V.A. una invenzione poetica da me intitolata Regolamento che non si fara 


a 


NOTES 211 


cosa simile nelle sudette Corti et spero che non sia disgrata, poiché da 1 maggiort 
poetr de tempt nostri et in particolar dal Chiabrera questa mia nova maniera di 
regalare vien molto comendata et di queste poesie drammatiche et del modo di farle 
rappresentare in canto, 10 me m’intendo qualche poco, come attesta Claudio Monte- 
verdo, Mastro di Capella del Duca di Mantova, conferendo meco li suoi compont- 
menti et quando facesse anco bisogna a V.A. di cantort buont per cantarseli et rap- 
presentar per lt affetti dell animo, come in queste invenzio ni si ricercano, io ne 
trovero come ho anché trovato per P Altezza di Savoia.” —Milan, March 8th, 1608. 
Archives of Modena. Canc. Duc. Regolari. 

(60) Cf. L’Opéra Italien en France, p. xxvi. et seq. 

(61) For all the details of the fétes of Mantua see Solerti, Albori del Melo- 
dramma, and Ademollo, La Bell’ Adriana. 

(62) Letter from Peri, October 26th, 1607. 

(63) Letter from Francesco Gonzaga, October t1oth (cf. Davari, p. 12). 

(64) Solerti has reproduced it in his Origine del Melodramma. 

(65) For Marco da Gagliano, cf. R. Rolland, op. cit., p. 108, and Vogel, 
Vierteljabrschrift, 1889. 

(66) E in tal guisa Florinda udisti, O Manto, 

La ne’ teatri de tuoi regi tetti 
D Arianna spiegar gli aspri martiri 
E trar da mille cor mille sospiri 

(67) De Courville, L’ Arianna (Revue Musicale, October 1921). 

(68) Published by Gardano at Venice. Lamento d’ Arianna del S. Claudio 
Monteverde. 

This edition contains some very interesting variants, and the text is preferable 
to that of the manuscript published by Vogel. 

The only known copy is preserved in the University Library of Ghent. 
I have republished this text in the collection, Les Maitres du Chant, Airs 
Italiens II, published by Heugel. 

(69) Letter of October 22nd, 1633. 

(70) “. . . gli stormenti collocati dietro la scena, che Paccompagnavano sempre 
econ la Vartazione della musica variavano il suono” (Follino’s description). 

(71) Harmonie Universelle—Des Instruments. \t must be remarked, how- 
ever, that about 1615 the Italian Viole da brazzo are confused with the violins, 
as Pretorius remarks. Mersenne notes that they have only. four strings like 
the violins. 

(72) “‘ Fifteen excellent dancers, dressed as soldiers of Bacchus, executed 
a dance entirely composed of caprioles.”” Solerti, p. 100. 

(73) Quoted by Romain Rolland, L’Opéra en Europe. 

(74) Rinuccini. Poésie, 1622. 

(75) Le Ballet de Cour en France avant Lully. Paris: Laurens, 1914. 

(76) Terzo Libro della Musica di Claudio Monteverdi. Milano, 1609. 

(77) Four days earlier, on November 26th, he very probably wrote to the 
same Chieppio a letter which has not been discovered, in which he declared 
himself ready to comply with his orders and send him what he asks in spite of 
his illness, which is the consequence of the excessive fatigue he has suffered. 

(78) Galeazzo Sirena had taken part as organist in the féte given on August 


212 MONTEVERDI 


roth, 1607, by the Academicians of Cremona in honour of Monteverdi (cf. 
Picenardi, op. cit., p. 35). 

He did not, moreover, leave his native town for Mantua. In 1626 he held 
the post of Maestro di Cappella of the cathedral, and had a collection of Masses 
published by Gardano at Venice. A motet of his composition had appeared 
in 1626 in Bonometti’s Parnassus musicus. 

(79) Letter of September 10, 1609. This letter has not been published. 
Schneider alludes to it, and quotes a passage from it, but, confusing the hereditary 
prince with the Duke, he gives an erroneous version. 

(80) See Letter V (August 24th, 1609), and in Davari (pp. 58 and 59) the 
letter of March 26th, 1611. 

(81) Letter from Casola to the Cardinal Gonzaga, July 26th, 1610 (arch. 
Gonzaga). 

(82) Cf. Solerti, Albori del Melodramma, chap. x. 

(83) Letter of December 28, 1610, No. VIII. 

(84) Ademollo, pp. 155 seq. 

(85) Letter from Monteverdi, June 22nd, 1611. Davari, p. §8, and Berto- 
lotti, passim. 

(86) Published by Torchi. Arte Musicale in Italia, I, IV. 

(87) Cf. Vogel, pp. 363 seq., and Caf, 1, pp.220seq. Letter of October 12, 
1613, No. X. . 

(88) Cf. Venetia Citta Nobilissima et singolare descritta gia in XXII libri da 
M. Francesco Sansovino et hora . . . emendata et ampliata dal M.R.D. Giovanni 
Stringa canonico della chiesa ducale di S. Marco Venetia 1604, p. 4. “Le 
Stanze sono poco commode e molto anguste.” 

The Canonica was reconstructed some years later, from 1618 to 1638. 

(89) Decree of August 24th, 1616. Vogel, p. 367. 

(90) Letter of March 13th, 1620. 

(91) De St. Didier, La Ville et la République de Venise. Paris, 1680, p. 158. 

(92) De St. Didier, op. cit., pp. 47—48. 

(93) “‘ Zl Pergolo dei Musici, il quale é in forma ottangola et in arta da sette 
colonne dt finissima pietra sostuneto e due altre medtocri vi si veggono vicino al 
muro.” ... Venetia Citta Nobilissima. 

(94) “©... aleunt altri Musici che in certi giornt solennt fra P anno con trombo 
nt, cornettt et altri vari e diuersit stromenti: musical suonano et alla Messa et al 
V espro molto eccellentemente, e tutti sono salariati dalla Procuratia onde anco anco 
Pelettion loro spetta a’i Procuratort.”—V enetia Citta Nobilissima, p. 85. 

(95) “* Sotto il predetto volto a punto sw’ corritore giace un bellissimo organo. 
Egli fu opera di Fra Urbano Eccellentissimo Maestro di tali instrumenti et pero 
trovast ottimo e perfettissimo : leggendovisi di dentro questre parole in lettere d ore : 
Opus hoc rarissimum Urbanus Venetus F. Le canne @ avanti sono in sette ordint 
et in vaga maniera compartite. Eght é vaghtssimamente all intorno lavora e messo 
ad oro.” “ E sonato al presente quest organo da Paolo Giusto.organista salariato 
dalla chiesa.” . . . ‘This organ is placed above the altar of St. Peter; the second 
organ is situated opposite, but in such a way as not to block the window. “ J/ 
suono di questo organo a soavessimo e tanto piu soave quanto viene dal piu eccellente 
organista ch’ habbia boggidi la nostra Italia sonato e questro é Giovanni Gabrielli 





NOTES 21% 


degno d’ognilode per la rarae singolare virtu che regna in lut in simil professione....” 
Venetia Citta Nobilissima (1604). 

(96) Marc Antonio Negri had been appointed Vice Maestro on December 
22nd, 1612. For the list of his compositions, cf. Eitner, Quellenlexicon. 

(97) About 1619 the post of first organist was held by G. B. Grillo, who 
was succeeded in 1623 by Carlo Fillago. G. B. Berti was appointed second 
organist in 1624; he was succeeded on January 22nd, 1640, by Francesco 
Cavalli, who had been tenor at the chapel since 1617. 

In the sixteenth century there had been as many as three nominal organists. 
The third organist played “Porgano piccolo del terzo de concerti ’’—doubtless 
a regal or a positive which was placed in a corner of the church on festival days. 
The post was suppressed in 1591, and it was decided that the Maestro di Cappella 
should, in case of need, get outside help. (Procuratoria di Sopra 4 f. 68.) 

(98) Rovetta, in the Note to the Reader of his Salmi concertati a 5 e 6, 
published in 1626, states that there are, in the service of the Chapel of St. Mark’s, 
“ non tanto trenta a piu cantort, ma venti e pin Instrumentisti de fiato e da arco.” 

(99) Laconismo delle alte qualita di Claudio Monteverdi. 

(100) It would be exceedingly interesting to write a history of the musicians 
of St. Mark’s. All the details could be found in the files of the Procuratoria 
dt Sopra of the Cancelleria Inferiore. 

Historians of music seem, up to the present, to have ignored this rich source 
of information. See, in particular, Cancelleria Inferiore: 'T. 79, £. 108, T. 80, 
Peaeee 102, 203,270, 249 and f. 45; I. 81,123; ‘T. 82. £. 20, 

(101) Cancelleria Inf., 'T. 80, f. 230, 249. 

(102) The decision of the Doge is dated October 29th, 1623. The text is as 
follows: “‘ Essendo pervenuto a notizia dt S. Ser., certa tal qual pretentione della 
scola de sonadort eretta nella chiesa di San Silvestro di questa citta d1 voler aggregare 
in essa loro scola li cantort della cappella della chiesa di santo Marco, tl che riusct- 
rebbe a poca reputatione di esst cantort gia eletti et che st eleggeranno dallt Illus- 
trisstmt Procuratort, et tmpossessarst della suprema autorita della Ser. Percto 
invigtlando alla conservazione della suprema autoritd della, Ducale giuridizione 
et al giusto sollievo et honoravolezza di esst cantort, termina che sia terminato che 
tutti cantort di essa capella presenti e che saranno de cetero celettt stano e s intendino 
assolutamente liberi e esenti di essa scola et non debbono conoscere altro magistrato 
superiore in tal materia che’l Ser. Principe suo Padrone e Protettore. Terminando 
in oltre S. Ser. Che esst cantort di detta cappella possino oltre 11 canto, sonare 
qualunque instromento musicale in qualunque chiesa e luogo dt questa citta et part- 
mente tnsegnare di sonare et cantare si nelle sue scole comme nelle case de particolart, 
ne possino sonare di ballo nelle feste pubbliche e private mercenariamente.” Can- 
celleria Inf.,'T. 81, p. 123. 

(103) Gio. Batta Gualtieri had himself exempted by the Procuratori from 
the dues claimed from him by the Guild of Minstrels. Proceedings of June 26th, 
1684. Cancelleria Inf., Vol. 82. 

(104) In 1613 Domenico Aldegati denounced Pietro Savolchi for not being 
a regular member of the choir of St. Mark’s, and denied his right to 
accompany the members to sing in other churches. Cf. Cancellerta Inf. 
Primticeria 3. 


214 MONTEVERDI 


(195) ar Geter leat: 

(106) CE Oats aed: 

(107) C. Vogel, pp. 361-399, and Archivio del Stato di Venezia (March gth, 
1590). 

We In 1617, Alessandro Grandi had succeeded Gaspare Locatello as 
singing-master of the Ducal seminary. He was succeeded in 1626 by Andrea 
Grandi, who was in his turn succeeded in 1637 by Antonio Gualtieri. 

(109) Letter of March 17th, 1620. M. Schneider, who quotes this letter, 
seems to think that ‘ I] Signor Primiciero ” is the name of a Venetian noble. 
The Primiciero is the Dean and the first dignitary of the Chapter. 

(110) Letter of July roth, 1627, published by Davari, pp. 84-85. 

(111) This is a free translation. ‘The text of this letter, published by Davari 
(p. 24), is as follows : “‘ Una messa a sei voct, dt studio et fatica grande, essendost 
obligato maneggiar sempre in ogni note per tutte vie, sempre pik rinforzando le 
otto fughe che sono nel motetto 1n 1llo tempore del Gomberti. Il vespro della Madonna, 
con varie et diverse mantere d’inventiont et d’armonta, et tutte sopra 11 canto fermo.” 

(112) ‘The thorough-bass had soon been adopted for church music. Viadana, 
who was at Mantua at the same time as Monteverdi, and exercised the functions 
of Maestro di Cappella of St. Peter’s cathedral from 1594 to 1609, published as 
early as 1602 his famous Concerti ecclesiastica a 1, 2, 3 @ 4 voct con il basso con- 
tinuo per sonar nell’ organo Nova inventione commoda per ogni sorte de Cantori ¢ 
per gli organist. 

(113) Quoted by Vogel, p. 392. 

(114) André Pirro, H. Schutz, p. 78. 

(115) Harmonie Universelle. Des Instruments, p. 274. _ 

(116) Call op rit, Tozer. 

(117) Published by Marcelle Capra, Torino. 

(118) Published by Senart, Paris. 

(119) Selva Morale (1641), p. 14 (soprano): Confitebor terzo alla francese a 
5 qual st pud Concertare se piacera con quattro viole da brazzo lasctando la parte 
del soprano alla voce. 

(120) De St. Didier, La Ville et la République de Venise, 1680, pp. 386 et 

assim. 
: (121) The letter from the Resident, Sordi, containing an account of his 
interview with Monteverdi, is to be found in the Archivio Gonzaga (Venetia, 
Lettere del Sordi, November 21st, 1615). 

(122) ‘The poetic text has been published by Solerti: Albori del Melodramma, 
p- 289. 

(123) This letter, which has not been published, is erroneously dated January 
6th, 1611, instead of January 6th, 1617. M. Schneider, who quotes it, maintains 
this date, which is obviously an error, since Monteverdi had not yet arrived at 
Venice in 1611, and since, moreover, it is a continuation of the letter of December 
gth, 1616, quoted above. 

(124) Bevilacqua—Andreini: Guornale storico di letteratura ital. XII, p. 

7 Seq. 
d pe Letter of March 22nd, 1619. 

(126) Letter of July 21st, 1618. 


7 
4 
’ 
; 
; 
j 
r 
: 
s 
‘ 
. 





NOTES Bs 


(127) Letter of July roth, 1627, published by Davari. 

(128) Letter of May 7th, 1627 (No. XLII). 

(129) Letter of February 4th, 1628 (No. XLIX). 

(130) This letter, which has been published by Florimo, belongs to the year 
1627, and not to 1617, as was assumed by Florimo, and on his authority by all 
those who have reproduced or quoted this letter. Cf. No. XLIV. 

(733) Cf. Letter XLV. 

(132) Cf. Angelo Solerti, Musica, Ballo, Drammatica, p. 193. 

(133) Cf. Letters XXXIV-XXXVI. 

(134) According to Galvani, this is now the Hotel Danieli. 

(135) Cf. Revista Musicale Ital., 1904, fasc. 1. 

(136) For the Madrigals of Book VI, see the very lively and comprehensive 
commentary by M. André Tessier, Les deux styles de Monteverdi (Revue Musicale, 
1922), where numerous examples taken from these madrigals are to be found. 

(137) The only existing copy of this work is to be found in the Library 
of Hamburg. I am glad to take this opportunity of expressing my profound 
gratitude to my erudite colleague, Prof. Herman Springer of Berlin, who has 
been good enough to use his influence to procure for me photographs of this 
valuable collection, and of various compositions by Monteverdi preserved in 
German libraries. 

(138) The only existing copy is in the Breslau Library. I have published 
the aira Maledetto sta Paspetto in Les Mattres du Chant (3rd Collection of Italian 
airs. Published by Heugel). 

(139) Cf. Encyclopedie Lavignac, I1, 716 (musical text quoted by Romain 
Rolland). 

(140) XX Madrigali e Canzonette a due et tre voct. Venetia, Vincenti 
(Libraries of Breslau and Bologna). 

(141) I propose to study the history of the cantata in Vol. VI. of the Encyclo- 
pedie Lavignac, and to reproduce there examples which will complete the limited 
quotations which have been possible here. 

(142) In 1611 he had sent to him “ the latest musical airs printed by Sr. 
Guesdron.” Cf. Bertolotti; op. cit., pp. 73 and 93. Finally, the singer G. M. 
Lugharo wrote him in 1606 that he had gone to Paris on his account in order 
to enrich his repertory (arrichirmi) with the finest French airs, and to learn 
how to sing them (Arch. Gonzaga. Francia, 666-1606. Diverst). 

(143) “Le tre parti che vanno commiserando in debole voce la Ninfa s1 sono 
poste in partitura accid seguitano il pianto di essa, qual va cantato a tempo del 
affetto de ? animo e non a quello della mano” (Madrigalt Guerriert ed amorost). 

(144) Published by Torchi: L’Arte Musicale in Italia. Vol. VII. 
Ricordi. In Book VII, the partezza amorosa in genere rappresentatio is to be 
sung senza battuda. See the musical text in Adler’s Handbuch der Mustk- 
geschichte, p. 376. 

(145) It is to be found in Vogel, op. cit. 

(146) A note is prefixed to the musical text of the Combattimento and gives 
most precise directions for the way in which the work was to be performed. 
“‘ Combattimento in musica di Tancredi, descritto dal Tasso; il qual volandost 
esser fatto in genere rappresentative, si fara entrare alla sprovista (dope cantatost 


216 MONTEVERDI 


madrigali senza gesto) dalla parte della camera in cut si fara la Musica, Clorinda 
in piedi armata, seguita da Tancredt armato sopra ad un cavallo mariano ed 11 
Testo all hora comincterd il canto. 

Faranno gli passi et gesti nel modo che Poratione esprime et nulla di prt ne meno, 
osservando questi diligentemente gli tempt, colpi et passt et ght istrumentistt glt 
suont incitati et moll, ed il Testo le parole a tempo promuntiate, 1n maniera che 
le tre ationt venghine ad incontrarst in un imitiatione unita. Clorinda parlera 
quando gli tocchera, tacendo il Testo ; cost Tancredt. Glt istromentt, cio1e quattre 
viole da brazzo soprano, alto, tenore et basse et contrebasso da gamba che continuera 
con 11 clavicembano, doveranno essere tocchi ad tmitatione delle passioni de’ T orattione. 

La voce del Testo dovera essere chiara, ferma et dt buona pronuntia alquante 
discontra da gli istromenti atid meglio sia intesa nel oratione. Non dovera far 
gorghe ne trilli in altro loco, che solamente nel canto della stanza che incomencta la 
Notte. Il rimanente portera le pronuntie a similitudine delle passiont del oratione. 

In tal maniera (gia dodect anni) fu rappresentato nel Palazzo del? Illmo. et 
Eccmo. Sig. Girolamo Mocenigo, mio particolar Signore. Con ognt compitezza per 
essere cavaliere di bonissimo e delicato gusto. In tempo perd de Carnevale per 
passatempo di veglie. Alla presenza di tutta la nibiltd laquale resto mossa del 
affetto di copasstone in mantera che quast fu per gettar lacrime et ne diede applause 
per esser stato canto di genere non piu visto ne udtto.” 

(147) For Opera in Venice see: Galvani, Leairi Maficall dt Venezia. 
Goldschmidt, op. cit. Pruniéres, ?Opéra Italien, chap. i. Romain Rolland, 
op. cit. ; Kretzchmar, op. cit. 

(148) De Saint-Didier, La Ville et la République de Venise. De? Opéra. 

(149) Cf. the curious Passacaglia by Luigi Rossi which I have published 
(Senart), with its series of sevenths and its extraordinary final cadence. 

(150) Les véridiques avantures de Ch. Dassoucy, Revue de Paris, October 1922. 

(151) It is not, however, excluded that the work was written to be performed 
at Vienna. Monteverdi was on excellent terms with the Austrian sovereigns. 
The Selva Morale of 1641 is dedicated to the Empress Eleanora di Gonzaga, 
and the 1638 edition of the Madrigals to the Emperor. It was discovered in 
the Library of Vienna by Ambros and Kiesewetter, attentively studied in 1904 
by Dr. H. Goldschmidt, and published in 1922 in the collection of the Denkmale 
in Osterreich. ‘There is no doubt that they are authentic. 

(152) In his preface, Badoaro does not conceal Monteverdi’s part in the 
elaboration of the poem. “I have left out the ideas and maxims having no 
connection with the subject of the poem, and have applied myself above all 
to rendering emotion, as is desired by Signor Monteverdi, to please whom | 
have changed and omitted many things I had first written.” Yet Monteverdi 
did what he liked even with the text which had been written according to his 
directions. Whole scenes were omitted, speeches cut, words changed. The 
libretto was divided into five acts. He reduced it to three. He brought the 
drama to an abrupt conclusion with the love-duet of ‘Ulysses and Penelope, 
suppressing all the subsequent verbiage. 

(153) Cf. the interesting work by Dr. Haas, author of the new edition of 
the Ritorno d’Ulisse, Studien zur Musikwissenschaft, 14. Vienna, 1922. 

(154) This is not the only passage which recalls the Combattimento. A 





NOTES 217 


little later, when Ulysses describes his proposed attack upon the suitors, the rapid 
runs in contrary motion and the melody constructed upon the notes of the 
common chord are reminiscent of similar passages of the celebrated warrior 
madrigals. 

(155) Encyclopédie Lavignac, II. 707. 

(156) It has been published by Van den Borren in the supplement of the 
Revue Musicale (Paris) for July 1922. 

(157) Since every music-lover should possess the score of the Jncoronazione, 
it seemed unnecessary to make frequent quotations from the musical text. See 
Goldschmidt’s edition, Studien sur Italienischen Opera (II) and Vincent d’Indy’s 
selections (Schola Cantorum). Van den Borren is at present preparing a complete 
and handy edition of this masterpiece. 

(158) Letter of September Io, 1627. 

(159) Monteverdi carried on a lengthy correspondence with the Duke 
of Modena; his letters have unfortunately disappeared from the archives. 
There exist only the drafts of two letters addressed to Monteverdi by 
the Duke of Modena to thank him for two madrigals. The first is dated 
March 24. 

“Tl madrigale che V.S. mi ha mandato é piaciuto sommamente a tutti quel 
li che Phanno sentito, ond’elle ha molto ben compensata quella poca tardanza, che 
a let ha dato fastidto con la leggiadria e finezza della composizione, et ha corrisposto 
pienamente al concetto che cammina del suo valore. Io pot, che sono stato sempre 
partialissimo delle cose sue, m1 sono hora tanto piu confermato in questa dispositione 
che ho fatto intiera esperienza e con mio particolare gusto del suo veritiero talento 
et della sua amorevolezza. Staro attendendo ch’ ella mi raddoppit il godimento e 
Pobbligo con Paltro madrigale et che possa insteme avisarmt di star bene di salute, 
essendomt grandemente rincres ciuto del male ch’ella ha havuto, et della briga che 
10 le ho data in tale congiuntura. Intanto ringraziandola quanto devo della pronteza 
che ha mostrata nel sodtsfare al mio desiderio me le offero contutto animo. .. .” 

In the second, dated July 4, 1624, the Duke thanks him for sending further 
compositions, regrets to hear he has been unwell, and says that he is awaiting 
with great interest two other Madrigals and some Canzonette a tre voct which 
Monteverdi is to send him. 

On April 7, 1623, the Prince of Modena requests his correspondent, Alberto 
Colombo, to give him news of Monteverdi and to add his opinion of the 
castrato Luca Salvadori of Pistoia and of a Brescian organist who has published 
some madrigals, 

On May 11, 1623, the prince writes to the lutanist, Bellerofonte Castaldo, 
that he has had Monteverdi’s madrigals sung ‘‘ con molta mia ricomandatione 
perche mi piacquero assaissimo come 10 sapeva che non potre essere dt manco per 
Peccellenza del autore, la qual appresso dt me é in quella stima maggiore che 
puo.”’ He asks for further compositions by Monteverdi. (Archivio di Stato. 
Modena. Minute di lettere ducalt.) 

(160) Letters of December 13th, 1619, January 5th and February 28th, 
1620 (Arch. Orsini, Rome). These letters were discovered by M. Ferdinand 
Boyer, who has been kind enough to send me a copy of them. 


(161) Published by Masolli at Rome in 1627. 


218 MONTEVERDI 


(162) Letters of March 15th, August 23rd, September rgth, 1625, February 
15th and 24th, March 29th, 1626. 

(163) Cf. Bertolotti, op. cit., and Monteverdi’s letters. 

(164) Letters of November 5th, 1615, and July 27th, 1616. 

(165) In 1622, Monteverdi offered the Duchess a monkey as a token of grati- 
tude (letter of April 15th, 1622). 

(166) Cf. Davari, pp. 51,-99. 

(167) Letter to Marigliani, September Ist, 1627. 

(168) Letters LII and LIII. It is not known to whom these letters were 
addressed, but it seems likely that it was G. B. Doni, celebrated for his 
theoretical works, and for his research in ancient music, and inventor of the 
Lira Barberina. As he had long been Secretary of the Holy College and 
courtier of Pope Urban VIII, he must have held some ecclesiastical office 
which justifies Monteverdi’s use of the formula ‘‘ Reverendissimo.” It might 
also be the Duke of Bracciano, Paolo Giordano Orsini, with whom Monte- 
verdi was in correspondence in 1615. A passionate lover of music, he had, as 
Mandova tells us, invented new instruments. ‘‘ Musican, toto pectore adoravit 
et in ea ita valuit ut novi instrumenti inventor ab omnibus commendetur cui Rosi- 
drae nomen dedita Rosa, quam propria in Parma gestat Ursina Domus.” ‘The 
supposition that the letters were addressed to Doni seems preferable. 

(169) Anatole France, La vie en fleurs, p. 201. 

(170) André Pirro, Schutz, p. 78. 

(171) Romain Rolland, POpéra en Europe, p. 109. 

(172) Carkwright, “‘ An English Pupil of Monteverdi,” Musical Antiquary. 

(173) This air, on the subject of Alcide Ingrato, apparently extracted from 
an opera, is to be found in a precious manuscript collection once the property 
of Filippo del Noro, and now preserved in the Liceo Musicale of Bologna. 

(174) Library of the Liceo Musicale, Bologna. Saraceni uses all Monteverdi’s 
methods, particularly the stile concttato. 

(175) The Italian text is quoted by Sonneck, Volume I of the Catalogue of 
Opera Librettos, p. 1112.—(Washington, 1914.) 

(176) The foreign ambassadors communicate the news to their governments. 
The Florentine President, Francesco Maria-Zati, writes to Gondi, Secretary 
of State, on December 5th, 1643. ‘* Mort Pultimo di del passato 11 famoso musico 
Monteverde da Cremona ed 11 seguente giorno dalla mazione milanese con pompa 
funebre le furono celebrate Vesequie con Vintervento di quasi tuttt 1 Musici della 
Citta. Vaca per questa morte 1] luogo di maestro della Cappella di San Marco, 
preteso ad straordinari emulazione da moltt virtuost di Venezia ma intanto s intende 
che questi SSri procurano un soggetto forestiero.”—Arch. de Florence, Mediceo 3022, 
f. 573. 

Mer. Casimiri tells me that he has had in his hands a letter written from 
Venice to Carissimi, offering him Monteverdi’s place, and giving interesting 
details of the latter’s death, I have been unable to procure a copy of this 
document. 





CATALOGUE OF MONTEVERDI’S WORKS. 


Note.—As Vogel has published in the appendix of his study of Monteverdi a detailed cata- 
logue of his works, with an alphabetic list of all the madrigals and motets published in the various 
collections, the reader is referred to that list, to Eitner’s Quellen lexicon, and to Vogel’s Bibliothek 
der Vokalmusik Italiens. 


The present list contains only the indication of the first edition of each collection, without 
details of its contents. For the general bibliography of the collections, see Vogel. 


1583. 


1584. 
1587. 
1590. 
1592. 
1603. 
1605. 


1607. 


1609. 


1610. 


1614. 


1619. 
1623. 
1632. 
1638. 


1640. 


Madrigalt Spirttualt a quattro voct porst in Musica da Claudio Monte- 
verde Cremonese, Discepolo del Signor Marc’ Antonio Ingegniert. Brescia, 
Sabbio, in 4to (bass part only). 

Canzonnette a tre voct. Libro Primo. Venezia, Amadino. 

Madrigalt a cinque vocit. Libro Primo. Venezia, Gardano. 

Il Secondo libro de Madrigali a cinque vocit. Venezia, Gardano. 

Il Terzo libro de Madrigal: a cinque voct. Venezia, Amadino. 

Il Quarto libro de Madrigali a cinque voct. Venezia, Amadino. 

Il Quinto libro de Madrigali a cinque vocit . . . col basso continuo, per il 
Clavicembano, Chitaronne od altro simile istromento. Venezia, Amadino. 

Scherzt Musicali a tre voct di Claudio Monteverde Raccoltt da Giulio 
Cesare Monteverde suo fratello con la Dichiarazione di una lettera 
che st ritrova stampata nel quinto libro de suot Madrigali. Venezia, 
Amadino. 

L’Orfeo, favola in musica da Claudio Monteverde reppresentata in 

Mantova Panno 1617. Venezia, Amadino in fol. 

Sanctissimae Virgint Missa sents vocibus ac Vesperae pluribus de can- 
tandae con nonnullis sacris concentibus, ad Sacella sive Principum 
cubicula accomodata. Venetiis, apud Amadinum, in 4to. 

Il Sesto libro de Madrigal: a cinque voct con un dialogo a sette con 11 suo 
basso continuo per poterl: concertare nel Clavicembano et altri stromentt. 
Venezia, Amadino. 

Concerto settimo libro de Madrigali a 1, 2, 3, 4 et set voct con altri genert 
da canti. Venezia, Bart. Magni. 

Lamento d’ Ariana del Sigr. Claudio Monteverde et con due lettere amorose 
in genere rappresentative. Venezia, Magni, in 4to. 

Scherzt Musical cioe Arie et Madrigali in stile recitativo con una Ciaccona, 
a@1,4a2,voci. Venezie, Magni. 

Madrigal guerriert et amorosi con alcunt opuscoli in genere reppresentative 
che saranno per brevi episodit fra 1 canti senza gesto, Libro Ottavo. 
Venezia, Aless. Vincenti. 

Selva Morale e Spirituale. Venezia, Magni. 

219 


220 CATALOGUE OF MONTEVERDI’S WORKS 


1650. Messa a quattro voct et salmi a una, due, tre, quattro, cinqué, sét, sette, et 
otto voct, Concertati, e Parte da Cappella et con le Letante della BV. 
Venezia, Vincenti. 

1651. Madrigali e Canzonetti a due e tre voct. Venezia, Vincenti. © 


PRINCIPAL UNPUBLISHED WORKS.* 
* For the Bibliography of the old copies of Monteverdi’s works, see Eitner and Vogel. 


1641. J Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria. Favolo di Badoaro, Biblio. de Vienne. 
1642. L’Incoronazione dt Poppea, opera di Busenello. Bibl. San Marco 


Venice. 





COMPLETE LIST OF MONTEVERDI’S 
CORRESPONDENCE. 


Except where otherwise stated, the originals of these letters are preserved 
at Mantua (Archivio Gonzaga, Autografi, Lettere del Monteverdi). As the names 
of those to whom they were addressed have in almost all cases disappeared, 
they are given here conjecturally, and with great reserve. 


The letters reproduced in the following pages are indicated by Roman 
numerals placed in the right-hand margin. ‘Those indicated by an asterisk 
have already been published in the original text by Davari: 


1.* 1601. November 28th. From Mantua to Duke Vincenzo 
Gonzaga. 
(He applies for the post of Maestro di Cappella e di 
Camera rendered vacant by the death of Benedetto 
Pallavicini.) 
2. 1604. October 27th. From Mantua to the Duke. Revel 
cp December. From Cremona to the Duke. Il 


4. 1607. July 28th. From Cremona to the Ducal Secretary 
Annibale Iberti. 
(Immediately after the Duke’s departure he went to 
Cremona to see his father. In spite of his bad state 
of health, he has set to music the sonnet which the 
Duke sent him.) 


5. 1608. November 26th. From Cremona to  Annibale 


Chieppio. Dif 

6.* December 2nd. From Cremona to the same. IV 
1609. August 24th. From Cremona to Count Alessandro 

Striggio. V 

September roth. From Cremona to the same. vi 

g. 1610. June gth. From Mantua to the same. vil 
To December 28th. From Mantua to Cardinal Ferdinando, 

Mantuan Ambassador to Rome. VIII 
11.* 1611. March 26th. From Mantua to Duke Vincenzo 

Gonzaga. 


(He proposes the engagement of a musician who plays 

‘the flute, the cornet, the trombone and the bassoon 

to take the guinta pars in wind-instrument concerts. 
221 


222 


12. 


Ie, 1013, 


14. 1615. 


15. 
16, 


17: 
is. 


Ig. 1616. 


re 


MONTEVERDI 


He will present him at Easter. Hesends the Duke the 
Dixit a 8 which he ordered, and two motets for 2 
and 5 voices.) 


June 22nd. From Mantua to Cardinal Ferdinando 
Gonzaga. 


October 12th. From Venice to Alessandro Striggio. 
(Unpublished in the original, translated by L. 
Schneider.) 


January 28th. From Venice to the same. 

(President Sordi has conveyed to him the Duke’s 
invitation to go to Mantua immediately. He is 
going to ask leave from the Procurators, since nothing 
special retains him at St. Mark’s.) 

[Unpublished ; the paper is corroded by damp, and 
the letter is only partially legible]. 


February 11th. From Venice to the same. 


August 22nd. From Venice to Duke Ferdinando Gon- 
zaga. 

(He begs him to use his influence with the Presidente 
del Magistrato to get payment of the pension of one 
hundred crowns granted him by the late Duke 
Vincenzo). 


November 6th. From Venice to Alessandro Striggio. 


November 21st. From Venice to the same. 

(He has received the Duke’s command for the com- 
position of a ballet, but would be glad to know pre- 
cisely what he requires. He explains his ideas on the 
way in which the ballet Zzrst e Clori is to be per- 
formed.) 


July 27th. From Venice to the Duke of Mantua. 
December 9th. From Venice to Alessandro Striggio. 
December 29th. From Venice to the same. 


December 31st. From Venice to the same. 
(He insists on having the names of the singers who are to 


take part in Le Nozze di Tetide.) 


January 6th. From Venice to the same. 
(Erroneously classified with the letters of 1611.) 


January 14th. From Venice to the same. 

(He regrets that the Duke should have abandoned rie 
idea of producing Le Nozze di Tetide, for the score is 
well advanced. ‘There is no time to be lost if 
another opera and interludes are required for Easter.) 


January 20th. From Venice to the same. 


IX 


XI 


XII 


XIII 
XIV 
XV 


XVI 


XVII 





26. 


28. 


MONTEVERDI’S CORRESPONDENCE 


February 4th. From Venice to the same. 

(He has obtained the Procurators’ leave of absence 
for ten to fifteen days to go to Mantua but, having 
heard that the Duke has already left for Florence, 
he prefers to await further instructions in Venice.) 

February 18th. From Venice to the same. 

(He leaves the matter in the Duke’s hands and awaits 
his orders.) 

November 28th. From Venice to the same. 

(He is glad to hear that the Duke has received the 
ballet, and is pleased with the fragments he has had 
performed.) 


29*. 1618. April 21st. From Venice to Prince Vincenzo Gonzaga. 


34." 


35. 


36. 


(He excuses the delay in sending the music for the 
Andromeda, but he has been much occupied with 
the Easter ceremonies, and has to write, by Ascension 
Day, some motets and a cantata for the ceremony of 
the Marriage of the Doge with the Adriatic. He 
would be glad to know the cast of the Andromeda.) 

July 21st. From Venice to the same. 

(He sends fragments of the Andromeda. He has been 
delayed by headaches caused by extreme heat follow- 
ing on the heavy rains. He asks for details as to the 
composition of the choruses and the orchestra.) 

1619. February gth. From Venice to Alessandro Striggio. 
March 7th. From Venice to Marigliani (?). 
March22nd. From Veniceto Prince Vincenzo Gonzaga. 

\ (He excuses himself for not having set to music Marig- 
liani’s verses. He has been overwhelmed with work. 
“‘ Saturday never comes but I sigh to see it so soon 
here.’’) 

October 19th. From Venice to Alessandro Striggio. 

(He hopes to leave shortly for Mantua. He will 
present his new book of Madrigals to the Duchess, 
to whom it is dedicated. He hopes to be able to hand 
over to Striggio the music of his 9th Eclogue.) 

December 13th. From Venice to Alessandro Striggio. 

(His departure has been postponed but he is awaiting 
the Duchess’s return in order to give her the work 
which is dedicated to her.) 

December 13th. From Venice to the Duke of Brac- 
ciano at Rome. 

(Expressions of respect. He has given the manuscript 
to the printer and has got from him a motto, which 
he is sending to the Duke.—Archivio Orsin1, Gorrt- 
spondenza di Paolo Giordano II. Busta 163. F° 306.) 


223 


XVIII 
XIX 


224 


37° 


ann 


39: 


40. 


7 


42.* 


43." 


44. 
45. 


MONTEVERDI 


1620. January 5th. From Venice to the same. 


(He has handed over the money to the printer, who will 
do his best.—Busta 164. F? 348). 


January 9th. From Venice to Alessandro Striggio. 

(He sends him the Lamento di Apollo, and asks him 
to write a second verse, for the cheerful love-song 
which follows. He is working at the music of Marig- 
liani’s Andromeda, which Prince Vincenzo wishes 
to produce at the Carnival. ‘The time allowed him 
seems very short, and he fears that the music will not 
be good. He hopes that the Duke will postpone the 
performance of Andromeda and will give Striggio’s 
ballet.) 


January 16th. From Venice to the same. 

(He sends the beginning of the ballet. The Andro- 
meda is nearly finished and he thinks he will cer- 
tainly be able to get to Mantua for the performances.) 


February 1st. From Venice to the same. 

(He is working on the ballet. The Lamento di Apollo 
has been successfully sung in Venice. He has given 
up the idea of coming to Mantua, as he does not 
wish to kill himself with fatigue in attempting to 
get through the necessary number of rehearsals of 
the Andromeda in time.) 


February 8th. From Venice to the same. 

(He is going to send him the end of the Eclogue, and 
asks him to present the Duchess with the Madrigals 
he has dedicated to her. He hopes that Striggio 
will use his influence with the Duke in connection 
with the grant that was made him by the late Duke. 
He has two sons, citizens of Mantua, who are studying 
law and medicine, and is in great need of help.) 


February 15th. From Venice to the same. 
(He sends him the song of the River Peneus, and the 
rest of the ballet.) 


February 15th. From Venice to Ercole Marigliani. 


(He sends the song for eight voices which has been 
asked for.) 


February 22nd. From Venice to Alessandro Striggio. 


February 29th. From Venice to the same. 

(He pleads his state of health and press of work as 
excuse for not having been able to go to Mantua. 
He would be glad to obtain from the Duke the con- 
version into a grant of land of the pension bequeathed 
to him by the late Duke.) 


: 
| 


XX 





MONTEVERDI’S CORRESPONDENCE = 225 


46. February 29th. From Venice to the Duke of Bracciano. 
(He thanks him for the kindness done him. He will 

take the first occasion of sending the books to Rome. 

—Archivio Orsint, Corrisp. Paolo Orsini. II. B. 164, 


F? 62;) 
47. March 8th. From Venice to Alessandro Striggio. XX] 
48.* March 13th. From Venice to the same. XXIT 
49. March 17th. From Venice to the same. 


(He has received the Duke’s command for a copy of the 
Arianna, which he sends. He would be glad to obey 
the Duke’s orders to go to Mantua before Easter, 
but he does not think he will get leave. He is con- 
ducting music three times a week in the Oratory 
of the Primiciero of St. Mark’s, and is very busy.) 
50.* March 21st. From Venice to Alessandro Striggio. 
(He sends fragments of the Arianna. He hopes to 
go to Mantua for the rehearsals. He insists that 
he must have proper payment of the grant made to 
him by the late Duke.) 
[Published partially by Davari.] 
ee March 28th. From Venice to the Duke of Mantua. 
(He sends him part of the Arianna, the rest will follow 
by the next post. Protestations of devotion and 
allusions to the favour he expects from the Duke.) 
52. April 4th. From Venice to the Duchess of Mantua. 
(He thanks her for the gold necklace she has given him 
as a reward for the Madrigals.) 


cee April 4th. From Venice to Alessandro Striggio. XXIII 
54. April 18th. From Venice to the same. 
(He begs him to use his influence to get payment of his 
pension.) 

55. May 1oth. From Venice to the same. XXIV 
56. July 11th. From Venice to the same. XXV 
57. July 19th. From Venice to the same. XXVI 
58. July 24th. From Venice to the same. XXVII 
59. September 22nd. From Mantua to a Secretary. 


(The Duke, whom he has just seen at Goito, has 
promised to pay him his pension in advance. He 
asks the Secretary to hand over the money to Signor 
Paolo Anselmi.) 

60. October 9th. From Venice to Alessandro Striggio. 

(He missed Striggio in Mantua, and thanks him for 
what he has done about the pension. He has at 
last obtained the advances he wanted.) 


226 MONTEVERDI 


61. October 21st. From Venice to the same. 


62. October 31st. From Venice to the same. 

(He had scarcely written to the Duke to ask him to 
allow D. Francesco Dognazzi to come to Venice 
when the latter informed him that he could not 
obtain leave on account of press of work. ‘This 
makes him still more grateful to Striggio for the 
favour he has obtained.) 


63. 1621. February 26th. From Venice to the same. 
(He will do as Striggio orders, and leaves the matter 
entirely in his hands.) 


64. March 5th. From Venice to the same. 
(He expresses his pleasure in carrying out Striggio’s 
orders. He will send the compositions to Marigliani.) 


65. March 17th. From Venice to Marigliani. 
(He thought that the compositions in recitative style 
(certi cantt rappresentativi) which had been ordered 
from him were not required before September. ‘That 
is the reason why he has sent none of them yet. He 
is, moreover, much occupied with the composition 
of the Mass and motets which are to be sung in 
Florence as a requiem for the Grand Duke of Tuscany.) 


66. August 7th. From Venice to the Duchess of Mantua. 

67. September roth. From Venice to Marigliani. 

68. November 27th. From Venice to the Duchess of 
Mantua. 


69. 1622. February 26th. From Venice to the same. 
(He thanks her for having helped his son Massimiliano 
to enter at the College of the Cardinal di Montalto 
at Bologna.) 


70. April 1§th. From Venice to the same. 
vine October 1. From Venice to Alessandro Striggio. 
72. November 19th. From Venice to the same. 


(Signor Giustiniani has been to thank him for having 
obtained the loan of the Duke of Mantua’s company 
of actors for Venice.) 


oa December 3rd. From Venice to the same. 


74, December 1oth. From Venice to the same. 
(He has not been able yet to show Striggio’s favourable 
reply to Signor Giustiniani, but he wishes to express 
his thanks without delay.) 


754 December 31st. From Venice to the same. 


XXVIII 


XXIX 
XXX 


XXXI 


XXXII 
XXXITI 


XXXIV 


XXXV 





76, 


77+ 
78. 


79: 


80. 
8I. 
82. 
83. 


84. 


85. 


86. 
87. 


88. 
89. 


go. 


gl. 


MONTEVERDI’S CORRESPONDENCE = 227 


1623. 


1626, 


1627. 


January 23rd. From Venice to the same. 

(He is complying with the Duke of Mantua’s wishes, 
and has not written to the organist Ottavio Barani.) 

February 10th. From Venice to the same. 

March 11th. From Venice to the same. 

(He thanks Striggio for having conveyed his excuses to 
the Duke. He is better, but his health is not yet 
quite restored.) 

June-4th. From Venice to the same. 

(Signor Donati will accompany Signora Adriana and Sig- 
nor Muzio to Mantua, in compliance with the 
Duke’s orders.) 

March 2nd. From Venice to the Duke of Mantua. 

March 15th. From Venice to Ercole Marigliani. 

August 23rd. From Venice to the same. 

September 19th. From Venice to the same. 

(He thanks him for having taken an interest in his 
lawsuit, which he hopes will soon lead to a definite 
decision. He is sending a Murano vase which 
he has ordered for Marigliani.) 

November 22nd. From Venice to the same. 

(He sees that his adversary is persisting in the lawsuit. 
He begs Marigliani to use his influence, and gives 
some details of the affair, which disgusts him 
thoroughly.) 

February 15th. From Venice to the same. 

[This letter is illegible owing to a large tear. It 
concerns the despatch of a chemical product which 
Marigliani desires, doubtless for his alchemy. | 

February 24th. From Venice to the same. 

March 19th. From Venice to Alessandro Striggio. 

(Letter of introduction for his son, who wishes to settle 
in Mantua as doctor of medicine.) 

March 28th. From Venice to Marigliani. 

January znd. From Venice to Alessandro Striggio. 

(Campagnola has told him of Striggio’s wish that 
he should set his verses to music. Protestations of 
devotion.) 

March 2oth. From Venice to Alessandro Striggio. 

(He thanks him for having obtained a month’s advance 
on his pension for his son Massimiliano.) 

May Ist. From Venice to Alessandro Striggio. 

(He will gladly compose the opera which the Duke 
desires, but he insists on having plenty of time and 
a good libretto. It is easy to write interludes 


XXXVI 


XXXVII 
XXXVIII 
XXXIX 


XL 


XLI 


228 


92." 
93." 


94." 


96.* 


98.* 


MONTEVERDI 


quickly, but not an opera, if one does not wish to 
fall ill over it. He has just set to music the Armida 
stanzas from Tasso, and has finished the Combatti- 
mento. He is thinking, too, of writing a short opera 
to a libretto by Strozzi, La Finta Pazza Licori. If 
the Duke wants some church music, he can send some.) 

May 7th. From Venice to Alessandro Striggio, 

May 22nd. From Venice to the same. 

(He hopes that Striggio will soon be cured of his gout. 
He has received the Duke’s orders to set La Finta 
Pazza to music. He is going to ask Strozzi to 
introduce some scene-changes, and some new char- 
acters. Signor Giacomo Rapalini is prepared to enter 
the Duke’s service, but upon certain conditions. 
Monteverdi asks the exact range of voice of Signora 
Margherita, who is to play the principal part in the 
opera.) 

May 24th. From Venice to the same. 

(He is waiting for Strozzi to return to set to work. He 
wishes that each appearance of the pretended mad- 
woman should be accompanied by some new and 
striking musical effect, etc.) 

June 5th. From Venice to the same. 

(Strozzi is back. He is going to recast his libretto in 
accordance with the new circumstances which have 
arisen, and will contrive a part for all the wirtuost of 
the Court. Strozzi has told him that the Duke of 
Tuscany had thought of commissioning Monteverdi 
to write an opera, but that in the end he employed 
Marco da Gagliano.) 


June 13th. From Venice to the same. 

(Strozzi has not yet returned the libretto, but he is at 
work on it. He indicates that it may be possible 
to engage a singer, aged twenty-four years, who 
has a well-trained bass voice.) 

June zoth. From Venice to the same. 

(He insists upon the excellence of the singer of whom 
he has already spoken. Strozzi is going to give him 
the libretto which he has divided into five acts, 
and Monteverdi hopes to send parts of the score to 
Mantua in a fortnight’s time.) 

July 3rd. From Venice to the same. 

(His work has been interrupted by a cold which has 
caused a violent inflammation of his right eye. The 
young singer has asked the Procurators for his 
release, in order to go to Mantua.) 


XLII 





MONTEVERDI’S CORRESPONDENCE 229 


99.* July roth. From Venice to the same. 
(He sends the first act of the libretto of La Finta Pazza 
Licort. ‘There will bea ballet in each act, all different 
and all extraordinary. He wishes to imitate in his 
music the actions of the characters, etc.) 


100, * July 24th. From Venice to the same. 

(He has been very busy. On Saturday, which is post 
day, he was occupied from five to eight o’clock 
with chamber music at the English Ambassador’s 
house, then he went to the church of the Carmine 
for vespers and arrived home very late. He is 
working at the opera. He gives a technical criticism 
of the voice of the young singer engaged by the Duke.) 


IOI.* July 31st. From Venice to the same. 
(He excuses the delay in the despatch of the Finta 
Pazza, which he is having copied.) 


hays August 17th. From Venice to the Duke of Mantua. 
(Same subject.) 

123 August 28th. From Venice to Count Striggio. 
(The copier has been ill. He sends the first three 
acts.) 

104.” September 1oth. From Venice to the same. 


(He sends the end of La Finta Pazza Licort. Marquis 
Bentivoglio has asked Monteverdi to compose 
interludes for the marriage of the Duke of Parma 
to verses of his composition. He has agreed, and 
finds the task easy, for the verses are principally 
monologues. He is anxious to obtain a canonicate 
at Cremona, as that will assure him of a place of 
retirement for his old age, and hopes the Duke ~ 
will use his influence with the Emperor to obtain it.) 


Lop September 1oth. From Venice to Ercole Marigliani. XLITI 
106.* September roth. From Venice to the Marquis Benti- 
voglio at Parma. XLIV 


[Published by Florimo, I, 115, with the date Septem- 
ber roth, 1617. The original is in the Conserva- 
torium of Naples. | 


107.* September 18th. From Venice to Count Striggio. 
(He shares his opinion of the Finta Pazza, although 
the whole thing may pass off well, thanks, to the 
variety of the music. He has not finished the 
Aminta, for which he requires another two months’ 
work. He entrusts the affair of the canonicate to 
Striggio’s prudence.) 


230 


108.* 


109.” 


110.” 


VR Bee 


112s" 


113. 
114. 
Tis; 
116. 


137; 
118. 


119. 


120. 
121. 


1628. 


1630. 


1633. 
1634. 


MONTEVERDI 


September 25th. From Venice to Count Striggio. 

(He is working at the interludes for Parma. He 
thinks that he will like the Armida, which he has 
just finished.) 

September 25th. From Venice to Marquis Bentivoglio. 

[Published by Tierset. Lettres de Musictens, p. 63. 
Translated into French by Weckerlin, J. G. Prud- 
homme, Tierset, etc. ‘The original is in the Library 
of the Paris Conservatoire. | 

October 2nd. From Venice to Count Striggio. 

(He is going to send off the little work which Striggio 
has asked for.) 

October 30th. From Parma to Marquis Bentivoglio. 

(He. has been through Modena with Gorretti. He 
has finished the interlude of Bradamante, and is 
working at the third interlude and at the tourna- 
ment. He asks to be back in Venice for Christmas.) 

[The original is in the Liceo Musicale at Bologna. 
Published by Caff, II. p. 171.] 

November 8th. From Parma to one of the Procurators, 

(The rulers of Parma would like him to stay till the 
end of the month and return immediately after 
Christmas. ‘They have written to ask this favour from 
the Procurators.) 

[Published by Cafh, I. p. 243. The original is in the 
Liceo Musicale at Bologna. 

December 18th. From Venice to Count Striggio. 


January Ist. From Venice to Ercole Marigliani. 
January 9th. From Venice to the same. 


February 4. From Parma to Marquis Alessandro 
Striggio. 


July 1st. From Venice to the same. 
July 8th. From Venice to the same. 


February 23rd. From Venice to the same. 

(He is going to set to music the words which have 
been sent to him. He has been delayed by the 
composition of religious music for the Sisters of 
San Lorenzo.) 


[Original at Cologne, Heyer Museum. | 
October 22nd. From Venice to G. B. Doni (?). 


February 2nd. From Venice to the same. 
[The originals of these two letters are at the Florence 
Conservatorium of Music. They have been 


published by Vogel. ] 


XLV 


XLVI 
XLVII 
XLVIII 


XLIX 
L 
LI 


LII 
Lill 





SELECTED LETTERS FROM 
MONTEVERDI’S CORRESPONDENCE 


[Anno 1604] 


I. At Sereni.mo S. Duca pit Manrova. Casat MonrFErRRATO. 
Seren.mo Sig.re et Padron. mio Coll.mo 


Per ultima provigione pur m1 convien ricorrere alla infinita bonta de PA. 
S. S. perché sta quella finalmente che cometta il voler suo circa delle paghe 
concessimt dalla sua gratia. Vengo pero a piedt suot con quella maggior humilta 
ch’10 posso a supplicarla dignarst dt movere 11 sguardo non al ardire mio ( forse ) 
circa questo scrivere ma st bene al molto bisogno causa ch’to scriva non al Signor 
Presidente che moltissime volte ha datto la commissione del st amorevolissimante 
et creatamente, ma s1 bene al Belintento che mai Tha voluta eseguire, se non 
quando a lui e piaciuto et all hora che st é tndotto a questo effetto, mi é bisognato 
quast usar termine abaver Vobligo a lut et non alla infinita bonta di S. A. S. 
che fa gratie anco a servitore dit poco merito per sua infinita bontate come son 
to presso al molto risguardo del grande merito de PA. 8. 8. doperando elli che é 
il pit anco mala creanza verso di me quando non ha voluto darm: tal pagamento ; 
questa scrittura mia ad altro fine non viene inanti a piedt suoi che per supplicare 
PA. 8.8. dignarsi dt comettere ch’io0 habbia paghe tali che assendono alla somma 
dt cinque mest nel qual termine st trova ancora la Sig.ra Claudia, et mio messere 
et questa somma cresse anco nel pit non vi veggendo per lé altre futture speranze 
di poterle havere senza commissione particolare di V. A. S., senza 11 qual fonda- 
mento tutta la fabrica mia restera cadente et ruinosa, potché dt giorno in giorno 
mi va sovravegnendo danni, et non ho con che ripararli, non ho doperato non- 
dimeno per haver tali pagamenti almeno di un mese solo, se non de tutti, che 
preghiere humiltd, et creanze, mattina et sera, in virth del qual uffitio, ho 
perso et vado perdendo quasi tutto il tempo de lt mtet studi] che devo spendere 
per gusto et bisogno di V. A. S. trovandomt in tal carico come sono da let agratiato 
‘et non posso nondimeno haver nulla, s’i0 son degno dt ricevere questa parttcolar 
gratia dalla bonta infinita di V. A. 8. ch’té chieggo supplicarla con quel mag- 
gior affetto di core ch’10 so et posso a concedermela, la quale sara di un comando 
che sta pagato non solo, ma maggiormente mi sara di somma gratia ogni volta 
che 10 non sia pagato per mano di quel Belintent1, perché son sicuro che V. A. S. 
non mi potrebbe dare altri fuorche lui che non doperasse verso di me qualche 
sodisfation1 almeno di parole se non dt fattt, almeno di honore se non di effetti, 
almeno una volta se non sempre et non so 10 per qual causa cid va usando questo 


231 


232 MONTEVERDI’S LETTERS 


verso di mé, la qual gratia sua se si estendesse sopra li dati; di Viadana tntegral- 
mente resteressimo soddisfatissimi; et assicurato dalla infimita bonta di V. 
A. S.; et dalli molti altri signalati favort, et gratie fattemi spero anco di questo 
che ho chiesto all’ A. 8. S. di restarne agratiato in virth delle quali gratie et 
favori, io non potendo altro, pregherd N. 8. per la conservatione longa di §. A. S. 
alla quale m’inchino et humilissimamente li faccio riverenza. Da Mantova 
il 27 ottobre 1604. 
DEV A'S. 
Humilissimo et ohblig.mo Ser.re 


Claudio Monteverdi. 


II. Av Duca v1 Manrtova. 


Seren.mo mio Sig.re et Pad.n Coll.mo 


Dieci giorni fa dal corriere hebbi Pultima lettera di V. A.S., che mi coman- 
dava che dovesst fare due entrate Puna per le stelle che hanno a seguitare la 
luna, et Paltra per li pastori che hanno a seguitare Endimione, et duot balletts 
parimente, Puno per dette stelle solamente, et altro per le stelle et pastort in- 
seme, cosi con un desiderio ardentissimo dt ubbidire et servire prontissimamente 
alli comandi del A. V.S. sicome sempre ho hauto et ho fatto, et haverod sin ch’to 
mora et fard sempre, mt post per fare prima quello delle stelle, ma non trovando 
nella instrutione quante di numero hanno ad essere nel ballarlo, volendolo fare 
intercalato come mt pare che sarebbe statto novo, bello, et gustevole, cioé facendo 
sonare prima da tutti li instrumenti un arta allegra et corta, et danzata da tutte 
le stelle parimente, di pot in un subito le cinque viole da brazzo pighando un 
arta diversa dalla detta, fermandost li altri instrumentt, ballandola solamente due 
stelle, restando le altre, et nel fine di detta partita a dover di novo ripighar la 
prima aria con tutti li tnstrumenti et stelle seguitando questo ordine sino che 
havessero ballato a due a due tutte le dette stelle; ma non havendo hauto il 
detto numero, et questo essendo di necessario 11 saperlo (piacendolo pero alla 
A.V. 8S. in tal mantera d’inventione intercalata come ho detto) per tanto sino 
ch’to lo sappia ho tralasciato il farlo, et per saperlo ho scritto a Mons. Guo. 
Batta ballarino, atid per mezzo dt mio fratello me ne dia 11 numero preciso, 
et fra tanto ho fatto quello delli pastort et stelle 11 quale hora invioa V. A. S.; 
Pho fatto s1, Seren.mo Mio Sig.re, con quel buon affetto solito, et pronta volonta 
di servirlo che ho sempre hauto et sempre havero, ma non gia con la obtdienza 
delle forze mie solite et pronte al mio volere che ho per lo passato haute che ancora 
st trovano indebolite dalle fatiche passate et fatiche in tal maniera, che ne per 
medicine, ne per star a dieta, ne per tralasciar li studi; sono ritornate nel loro- 
primo vigore, ben inqualche parte st; spero nondimeno nel Signore dt ricuperarle 
le quah haute se piacera a Sua Divina Maesta, supplicherd VA. V. 8S. al hora 





MONTEVERDI’S LETTERS 233 


che per Pamor di Dio, non mi vogli mat pid caricare ne di tanto d’affari in una 
volta, ne di tanta brevita di tempo che certamente, il mio gran desiderio di 
servirla et la molta fatica, immediatamente me tirerebbero alla brevita della 
mia vita, la quale pur se vivendo pik longamente potra servire all A. V.S. et 
glovare t miet povert filioli. 

St che Ser.mo Sig.re se PA. V.S. non si trovasse da me hora servita, ne nel 
beilo ne nel presto come forse aspeltava, et come era desiderio mio di fare, come 
parimenti ho sempre desiderato, non incolpi la bona mia volonta, ne lanimo 
mio, poiché sempre et questo et quella haveranno a somma gratia et asommo favore 
che PA.S.V. si degni di comandarle, alla quale inchinandomi li faccio humilis- 
sima riverenza et li prego da N. S. ogni compita felicita. Da Cremona il dicembre 
1604. 

D. V. Altezza Ser.ma 

Humiliss.mo et devot.mo servitore 


Claudio Monteverdi. 


[Anno 1608] 
III. Av Conte Annipare Curzppio (?) 


Iil.mo et Reveren.mo Sig. mio et patron Coll.mo 


Non men pronto che desideroso di servire a V. S. Ill.ma et Rev.ma subbito 
che fu gionto 11 staffiere, cominciat mandar ad esecutione 1] suo comandamento 
della composttione che li mando; Et st bene con verita posso dire che stando la 
indisposttione mia della quale non sono ancora risolto per le fatiche ht giornt 
passati costi haute, V. S. Ill.ma non restera cost servita conforme al desiderto 
mio; non dimeno sara per benignita sua agradito 11 buon animo mio assicurandola 
che maggtor favore non potro ricevere che servir sempre aV. 8. Ill.ma et Rev.ma 
alla quale per fine facendole humilissima riverenza; li prego da N. S. quel 
contento che a tanto principe st conviene. Di Cremona li 26 novembre 1608. 

D. V. 8. Ill.ma et Rev.ma 


Humilissimo et Divot.mo Servtit.re 


Claudio Monteverdi. 





IV. At Sic.r ALESSANDRO STRIGGIO. 


Ili.mo Sig. et Pron. Oss.mo 


Hoggt che @ Pultimo di Novembre ho ricevuto una lettera di V. S. Ill.ma 
dalla quale ho inteso il comando di S. A. 8. ma atid me ne venga quanto prima 
a Mantova. Sig. Chieppio Ill. mo, se per venire a faticarms di bel novo cos 


234 MONTEVERDI’S LETTERS 


comanda, 10 dico che se non riposo intorno al faticarmi nelle musiche teairalt, 
al sicuro breve sara la vita mia, potché per le fatiche passate cosi grandt, ho 
acquistato un dolore di testa et un pruritu cost potente et rabbioso per la vita 
che né per cautert che mhabbta fatto fare, né per purghe pighate per boca, 
née per salassi et altri rimedit potenti mi son potuto ancora risolvere, bene in 
parte si, et 11 S. r padre atribuisce la causa del dolore dt testa a li studit grandt, 
et del prurito, allaria di Mantova, che m’é contrarta, et dubtta che solamente 
Paria, fra poco di tempo sarebbe la mia morte. Hor pensa V. S. Ill.ma la 
gionta de li studi che farebbero se per venire a ricever gratie et favori dalla 
bonta et benignita di §. A. S.ma cosi comanda. Io dico a V.S. Ill.ma che 
la fortuna mia hauta a Mantova per 19 anni continut m’ha datto occasione 
di chiamarla inimica a me et non amica, perché se dal S.mo §.r Duca mba favorito 
@esser gratiato dt poterlo servire in Ongherta, m’ha disfavorito con farmt havere 
una gionta di spese che la povera casa nostra quast ancora ne sente di quel viaggio. 
Se mha fatto chiamare nel servitio dt 8. A. S.ma in Fiandra m’é stata contraria 
anco in quella occastone dt far che la Sig.a Claudia stando a Cremona portasse 
spesa alla casa nostra con serva et servitore, ancora non havendo let al? hora 
da §. A. S.ma che 47 lire al mese oltre alli denart che mi diede il Sig. Padre 
dietro; se mt diede occasione che il S.mo Sg.r Duca al? hora mi cressesse la 
provigione dalli 12 scudi et mezzo dt moneta di Mant.a sino alli 25 scudi al 
mese mt fu inimica anco in far che 11 detto Sig.r Duca dopo st risolvesse mandarmi 
a dire per il Sig.r Dn Federico Follint che in tal cresimonia s’intendeva che 
facesst le spese al Sig.r Campagnolo, all hora putto, et perché non volsi tal briga 
m1 convenne lasciar adietro 5 scudt al mese per le dette spese, cost restart con lt 
20 scudi che mt ritrovo, Se mi favort in far che il S.r Duca Panno passato mi 
adimandasse per servitio delle mustche delle nozze m1 fu tnimica anco 1n quell’ oc- 
castone con farm far una quast imposstbile fatica, et di pin mi fece patire di 
freddo, de vestiti, de servitute, et quasi de magnare con perdita della provigione 
della S.ra Claudia, et aqutisto dt grande malattia senza essere punto agratiato 
da S. A. 8. ma di qualche favore in pubblico, che ben sa V. Ill. 8. che li favori 
de’ princip1 grandi alli servitort giovano, et nel honore, et nel utile in occasione 
di foresterie in particolare, Se mi fect havere un vestito da S. A. S.ma per 
comparire nel tempo delle nozze m1 fect anco questo danno che me lo fect havere 
di un drappo che era dt seta et bavella lavorato, senza gioppone, senza calzetti 
et cinte et senza fodera di cendalo per 11 ferarolo, per lo che spest 10 di mia borsa 
20 scudit dt moneta di Mantova. Se mi ha fatto favore in farm1 havere occasioni 
tante et tante d’essere adimandato da S. A. 8. ma mi ha anco fatto questo danno, 
che wl S.r Duca sempre m’ha parlato per faticarmi et non mai per portarmi 
qualche allegrezza d’utile.Et se finalmente (per non essere pit longo ) mba favorito 
in farmi credere d’havere da S. A. S.ma una pentione de 100 scudi di moneta 
dt Mant.a sopra al capitanato della piazza, m’ha disfavorito pot anco che 
finite le nozze pin non sono statt li 100 scudt, ma solamente 70, con perdita 
della adimandata occasione et con perdita dellt denari delli mest scorst, quast forse 
meravighandost che fossero troppt li 100 scudt, li quali pot aggionti alli 20 


/.. 


‘ae - a 


eee ee 


eet 


ates: ¢. 


MONTEVERDI’S LETTERS as 


che mi trovo havere, facevano 22 ducatont in circa al mese, quali poi quando 
li havessi hauti che mi haveret avanzato per servitio de li miei poveri filioli ? 
Haveria potuto affaticarst assai in avanzare 500 scudi Panno d’entrata senza 
la provigione ordinaria Oratio della Viola se altro non havesse havuto che 
li detts al mese; haveria parimente potuto affaticarst bene Luca Marenzo 
in avanzarsene altre tanti ; parimente Filippo di Monte ; 1l Palestina che lascid 
a filtolt suot per mille scudi et passa dentrata; haveria potuto affaticarst 
bene 11 Luzzasco et 11 Fiorini ad avanzarsi per 300 scudi d’entrata per uno, 
pot lasciati a’ filiolt loro. Et finalm’te per non dir pit, haveria potuto affa- 
ticarst per avanzare Franceschino Rovight sette milla scudi come ha fatto se 
altro non havesse havuto che li dettt, li quali apena bastano in far le spese ad un 
patrone et servitore et vestirlo; non so pot 10 ad havere duot filiolt agiunti come 
m1 trovo. Sicché Ill.mo S.r s'ho da cavare la conclustone dalle premesse, dird 
che mai bho da ricevere gratie né favort a Mantova, ma pin tosto sperare 
(venendo) di haver da la mia mala fortuna Pultimo crollo. So benissimo che il 
S.mo S.r Duca é di buontssima intentione verso di me, et so che é principe 
liberalissimo, ma to sono troppo sfortunato a Mantoa, et V. 8S. Lil.ma lo creda 
da questa ragione, che so che molto bene S. A. S.ma, morta la Sig.ra Claudia, 
fece risolutione dt lasciarmi la provigione sua, ma gionto 10 a Mantoa, subito 
cangid pensiero, cosi non diede tal commissione per mia disgratia, per lo ché 
sin hora vengo ad haver perso passa 200 scudt, et ognt giorno vado perdendo. 
Fece anco risolutione, come ho detto di sopra, di darmti li 25 scudt al mese, ecco 
che subito cangid pensiero et per mia disgratia me ne calarono 5. Stcché L1l.mo 
S.re allaperta st conosce la mia mala fortuna essere a Mantova. Che vuole 
V.S. Ill.ma di pin chiaro? Dare 200 scudi a Mes.r Marco de Galliani che 
st pud dire che nulla fece, et a me che feci quello che fect, niente! Per tanto 
conoscendomt et ammalato et sfortunato a Mantova, supplico 11 S.r Chieppio 
Ill.mo che per Pamor di Dio mt voglt far havere una bona hicenza da S. A. S., 
che conosco da questa ne nascerad ogni mio bene. Il S.r Don Federico Follint 
mi promise per mezzo duna sua dimandandomi da Cremona Panno passato a 
Mantoa per le fatiche delle nozze, mt promise d1co, quello che V. §. Lll.ma pud 
vedere in questa sua che Pinvio, et pot alla fine nulla é Stato, 0 se pure ho 
bavuto, ho havuto mille et cinquecento verst da mettere in musica. Caro Stg.re 
mi aiuti ad havere bona licenza che mi pare che questo sit il meglio d’ognt 
cosa, perché muterd aria, fatiche et fortuna, et chi sa, che alla peggio che 
posso altro che restar povero come sono? Il venirmene a Mantoa per havere la 
licenza con bona gratia di §. A. quando altro non vogli, tanto fard, assicurando 
V. 8S. Ill. che sempre per mio Sig.re et padrone predicherd quella A. S.ma 
ovunque sard et lo riconoscerd con mie povere oration presso la M.ta di Dio 
sempre, altro non potro. 

In quanto poi a considerare a le gratie et a favorit ricevuti tantt et tantt 
dal? Ill.mo. Sig. Chieppio, sappia certo che non penso intorno a tal capitolo, 
mai che non arosisca in aricordarmi d’esserle stato tanto noioso, ma ove non 
ponno giungere le forze mie deboli agiungera almen Panimo et la voce mia im 


2.36 MONTEVERDI’S LETTERS 


predicare le infinite sue cortesie et in restar perpetuamente obligato aV.S. IIL, 
alla quale per fine faciole riverenza et le bacto le mani. Da Cremona il 2 dicembre 
1608. 
Di V. S. Ill. Ser.re Ob.mo sempre, 
Claudio Monteverdi. 





V. At Mepesimo. 


Ill.mo mio Signore et Patron Osser.mo 


Ho ricevuto una lettera di V.S. Ill.ma ed insieme certe parole da metterst 
in musica dt comissione di 8. A. S., et la riceuta fu ert che fu al 23 del presente, 
quanto prima mt porrd a comporle et finite ne dard ragualio a V. S. Ill.ma opurre 
le porterd 10 a Mantova perché in breve voglio essere al servitio; queste ho pen- 
sato prima dt farle ad una voce sola, et se pot S. A. S. comandera che riports 
quel arta a cinque, tanto faro, altro non mt occorre dire a V.S. Ill.ma se non che 
POrfeo speroche dimane che sara alli 25 mio fratello ricevera la copia finita 
di stampare dal stampatore che glie la mandera per 11 corriere di Venetia che 
gionge apunto dimani; et subbito hauta ne fara legare una et la donera aA. 
S. del Sig. Principe, et donandogliela supplico V. §. Ill.ma a compagnarla dt 
parole presso quella Altezza S. che significano 11 molto che desidero nel animo 
mio dt mostrarli quanto li sono devotissimo et humtlissimo Servitore et che dono 
poco a S. A. 8. (che molto merita) per mancamento di fortuna 51, ma non gia 
per difetto d’animo; Con questa occasione mt fara anco gratia di far sapere 
al detto Seren.mo Signore Principe che 10 ho parlato a quests sonatori di cornetto 
et trombont come mi diede commissione ch’1o facesst, et che mi hanno risposto 
che verano a servire §. A.S. ma questi due capi Puno che vorrebbero essere atutatt, 
da S. A. 8. di lettere di favore presso 11 Conte dt Fontes overo a chi st aspetta 
atid possano scodere certe paghe che avanzano dopoché il Conte di Fontes é nel 
stato dt Milano, et atid V. S. Ill.ma tntenda questi li avanzano perché sonano 
nel castello dt Cremona, et Paltro capitolo é che 11 padre et duot filioh h quah 
sonano dt tutts li ustrimenti da fiato vorebbero dodict scudt al mese per cadauno, 
a questo dt longo mi sono opposto et li ho detto che se 8. A. 8. giongesse allt otto, 
che mt. pare che sarebbero sodisfatti ; a questo non hanno ne detto né dt si né dt 
no, li duot altri perché non sono cost sofficientt come quests tre creddo che st 
haverebbero con manco salario, sonano uniti et prontamente, et da ballo et di 
musica perché ogni giorno st esercitano, 10 stard aspettando dt questo risposta 
et quello che comandera S. A. S. tanto fard né passerd pin oltre del suo comanda- 
mento, et con questo 10 finisco facendo riverenza a V.S. Ill.ma et pregarla che 
mi mantenghi nelle sue gratie. Da Cremona il 24 agosto 1609. 


D. V. S. Lll.ma. 
Servitor di core 


Claudio Monteverdi, 





MONTEVERDI’S LETTERS 237 


VI. At MeEpesimo. 
Ill.mo Mio Sig.re et Padron Osser.mo 


A li 9 del presente hebbi una di V. 8S. Ill.ma la quale mi comette che to non 
afferma quelli suonatort da fiato senza novo avviso, ma che ben li vada man- 
tenendo con qualche speranza, tanto ho fatto et tanto haveret fatto senz’ altro 
avviso tuttavia pin sicuramente lo faro havendolo di comandamento; li disst 
tre giornt fa a questi talt, se 11 Sig.r Comendatore o Castellano, sapesse che vi 
voleste partire vi darebbe egli licenza ; rispose che non solamente non lt darebbe 
licenza ma Vimpedirebbe ogni via perché non 51 potessero partire ; et sé nascesse 
11 caso come v1 partireste, risposero andaressimo senza dir altro, piu oltre non 
tratat, et V. S. Ill.ma ha inteso anco circa del loro difficile partirsi. 

Alli 4 del presente hebbi anco una lettera del Seren.mo Sig.r. Prencipe scrittami 
da Maderno, questa contiene che m’informi di un certo Galeazzo Sirena com- 
positore et suonatore d’organo se venirebbe a servire S. A. §., et che provisione 
vorebbe, et che li faccia intendere alla detta Serenissima Altezza la suffictenza 
sua et intelligenza, et perché 11 detto Galeazzo lo conosco bentssimo anz1 ogni 
giorno mi viene a trovare a casa che per tanto lo conosco intrinsicamente, di 
longo riceuta la comissione fect Pufficto 11 quale di subbito m1 rispose che la mente 
sua non era d’andare a servire prencipe, ma che desiderava andare a stare a 
Milano per maestro di capella della Scala come ben certt cantort milanesi 
gli havevano promesso dt farle havere tal loco, perché con quella occastone dice 
che haverta guadagnato in insegnare, in far musiche per la cittd, in comporre 
per le monache, et 1n far fare chitarrt et clavicembali da vendere, che per cio 
per tal mezzo haveria sperato di diventar ricco in breve tempo, al che rispost 
che desiderava che pensasse un poco sopra a quello gli havevo detto, et che se 
pot non havesse voluto andare a servire quell Altezza che almeno mt havesse 
detto che scusa dovevo pigliare, siché dopo pin volte havendolo visto et mat non 
mi havendo risolto: ho pensato per bene scrivere a V. S. Ill.ma chi é questo 
tale atid possa informare §. A. S.ma che volendo aspettare che m1 risponda 
et all’ hora scrivere a S. A. 8. dubbito che stando tardi S. A. non credda che sia 
negligente nel far quanto mi comanda. Pertanto dicco a V. S. Ill.ma questo 
Galeazzo essere uno dt eta di trentasette anni, povero, con moghe et filiolt, 
con padre che lavora per lavorente nelle carozze, et scranne da poggto, con madre 
molto pix povera che tutto 11 giorno i convien filare nel molino ; questo ha ingegno 
universale et ove si aplica non fa male, st pose in far un salterto lo fece assat 
bene, st pose infar un chitarone lo fece ancor lui assat bene, et parimente un 
clavicimbano et molte altre cose manualt, nella musica é intendente st, ma dt 
sua opinione, et vole che quello che riesse dal suo ingegno sia 1 piu bello dell arte 
et se altri non si tosto lo dicono lus é 11 primo, del suo non ho udito che di due messe 
a otto de Puna li chirte et la gloria, et de Paltra tutta eccetto il Sanctus et ? Agnus 
che pix non haveva composto, et un credo di un altra a quattro, un dixit a 
dodict, et certe canzoni da sonarst con le viole overo ustrimenti da fiato a quattro 


238 MONTEVERDI’S LETTERS 


voct, queste assai comodamente ben tirate nel arte, et di qualche tnventione 
nova, ma le messe et dixit, sono di uno stile ricco d’armonia st, ma dificoltoso 
da cantarst, poiché va cazzando certe parti et interumpimentt che tosto affaticano 
et affannano 1 cantanti, ma da ben a credere che st accomodarebbe anco a quante 
cerca 8S. A. 8. ma perché non ne ho sentito di tal genere del suo non vogho darne 
il parere, perché avanti che havesse cognitione di teatrt mt dé a credere che 
gli vorebbe a lui non poca fatica, havendo speso gli annt suot intorno ali generi 
di canto ecclesiastict, et parva in quelli anco dura fatica ad incontrare nelle 
proprie perché é di sua testa; et conoscendolo et nella povertate et nella opinione 
di suo pensiero esser molto ricco, et non essendo sicuro che dia la intera sodis- 
fatione a S.A.8. li disst perché so che vut vorreste essere ben pagato, 
atid sappia S. A. 8. in chi ha da spendere tali dinart, a vut sara poco il far 
quanto comandara la detta Sereniss. Altezza, per tanto se vorete andar a 
stare a Mantova in prova per tre mest, et 1vt mostrar 11 valor vostro fard 
che vi sara datto stanza, servitute, da magnare, et anco qualche cortesta dopo, 
et cost traterete Pacordio vut, et a questo rispose che non vole, et 10 sogiunst 
vot non havete in stampa cosa alcuna sopra de la quale se ne possa dar il giuditio 
del vostro valore, ne volete anco venire in prova, né havete fatto mat cant tea- 
trali, et come st potra venire in cognitione di questo senza esperienza alcuna, 
di maniera come V. §. Iil.ma ha visto e cosi fatto, ha non poca dt persuasione 
ne ha troppo modo di farsi voler bene alli cantori che questi da Cremona non 
vogliono cantarle sotto, ben lo stimano st, et volontiert dice male del terzo. Circa 
pot del sonar Vorgano per la cognitione del contrapunto suona, ma non gia per 
bonta di mano ché lui non ha mano da far titrate né grappolt, ne accenti, ne altri 
adornamenti ; et lui confessa non farne professione, se bene suona un organo in 
Santo Agostino qui di Cremona, ma questo lo fa per essere povero. Mi adimando 
dopo dut o tre giorni che li die se sarebbe andato a servire S.A. 8. se il Serentss. 
Sig. Prencipe lo voleva per maestro di capella suo o per altro, a questo li ris- 
post che non sapevo la mente sua; sicché Sig.r Striggio mio Sig.re mi é parso 
da scriverne a V. 8. Ill.ma quattro parole sopra dt cid che mi mettono Panimo 
in sospensione perché di cid 11 sig.r Prencipe é padrone di far quanto piace et 
pare all’ Altezza S.ma pigliando o lui o altri per maestro dt capella (se pure 
tal titolo li vol dare che non lo 50) mancando 11 Sereniss.mo Sig.r Ducca et che 
volesse Idio benedetto che io restassi dopo, et havendo maestro di capella al Sig.r 
Prencipe, che vorrebbe che facesst 10 handarmene all hora pot da Mantova! 
Desidero da V.S.Ill.ma essere favorito di sapere con quel destro modo che so che 
meglio sara fare let che 10 dire, se S. A. S. ha tal intentione atid sappt che fare, 
m1 perdont s°10 son statto troppo lungo ma incolpi la mia ignoranza che non 
mt ha lasciato imparare a dir conciso, et a questo li resto servitore di core, et 
li bacio le mani pregandola che mi mantenght nelle gratie sue facendole sapere 
che presto sard a Mantova. Da Cremona il 10 settembre 1609. 
Di V. S. Lll.ma servitore di core 


Claudio Monteverdi. 


MONTEVERDID’S LETTERS 239 


[Anno 1610] 
VII. At Duca pi Manrova. 


Seren.mo Sig.re et padron mio Coll.mo 


Da Messer Pandolfo me statto commesso da parte de PA. S. 8. ch’io senta 
un certo contralto venuto da Modena desideroso egli di servire all A. S. 8. cost 
di longo Pho condotto in Santo Pietro et Pho fatto cantare un motetto nell organo, 
et ho udito una bella voce gaghiarda et longa, et cantando in sena giongera benis- 
simo senza discomodo tn tutti li locht cosa che non poteva cost bene il Brandint, 
ha trillo assat bono, et honesta gorgia et canta assat sicuro la sua parte ne motettt, 
et spero che non dispiacera all A.S.S. Ha qualche diffettuzzi, come a dire s’in- 
gorga un poco tal volta la vocale quasi nella maniera di Messer Pandolfo, et 
talvolta se la manda nel naso et ancora la lassia sdrussilare tra denti che non fa 
intelligible quella parola et non percotte bene la gorgia come bisognerebbe, ne 
la rindolcisse a certt altri locht, ma tutte queste cose io sono di certa opinione 
che subbito avertito il tutto si leverebbe ; non Vho potuto sentire ne madregalt 
pot che era gia in pronto per partire et ventre alli comandi del A. 8S. 8. di mamiera 
che in quello che Pho udito, ne do relatione all’A. S. S., et perché altro non mt 
ha comandato, to qui finird la lettera con far humilissima riverenza all A. 
S. S. et pregar N. S. che largamente conservir in quella bona sanita et nella 
gratia sua A. V. 8. da Manto il 9 giugno 1610. 

D. V. A. Ser.ma 


Humiliss.mo et obblig.mo Ser.re 


Claudio Monteverdi. 


VIII. At Carpinare Ferpinanpo Gonzaca (?) 


Ill.mo mio Sig.re et padron Coll.mo 


Con questa mia vengo pregando da Dio con ogni affetto di core che dia il 
buon capo d’anno a V.S.L1. Pottimo mezzo et il miglior fine ad ogni suo Ill.mo 
pensiero et a me sempre occasione dt merito nella gratia di V. S§. Ill.ma con 
la quale son sicurissimo havere quella allegrezza ch’10 spero havanti ch’10 mora 
con 11 vedere mio filiolo nel seminario Romano con benefitio da chiesa che li paght 
la donzena, essendo 10 povero, et senza la quale nulla potret sperare da Roma 
in aiuto dt Franceschino gia fatto pretino per vivere et mortre in tale vocatione 
sotto alla protetione et servitore bumilissimo di V. 8. Ill.ma essendo vasallo della 
Ser.ma Casa Gonzaga nato da padre et madre servitort di lungo tempo delle 
Altezze Vostre Seren.me et da matrimonio fatto con particolar consenso del 
Ser.mo Sig.r Ducca Vincenzo; che se Roma con il favore di V.S. Ill.ma non 
lo aiutasse, resterebbe egh et un altro fratello suo povert s1 che apena potrebbono 


240 MONTEVERDI’S LETTERS 


andarsene in capo del anno con pane et vino, mancandoli 10. Cercherd qualche 
benefitio semplice o altro che possa portar pensione sufficiente per ottenere la 
gratia di questo bisogno da Sua Santita se V. S. Ill.ma s1 degnera volerl favortre 
lui et 10 insteme (come spero dalla infinita bonta sua, o presso a Sua Santita 
o presso a Monsignor Ill.mo Dattario che in altra mantera temendo di haverla 
fastidita troppo quando fui a Roma non oseret di bel novo dimandarli gratia 
alcuna. Avanti mt partisst da Roma udt la Signora. Ippolita molto ben cantare 
a Firenze la Sig.ra filiola del Signor Giulio Romano molto ben cantare et sonare 
di leutto chitaronato et clavicembano, ma a Mantoa la Sig.ra Adriana benis- 
simo cantare, benissimo sonare et benissimo parlare ho udito, sino quando tace 
et acorda, ha parte da essere mtirate et lodate degnamente fut forzato assicurar 
la quanto Ill.mi Sig.ri Cardinali Mont Alto et Perrettt Phonoravano et sti- 
mavano et maggiormente anco quanto V. §. Ill.ma in risposta della qual lode 
dt V. S. Ill.ma disse la Sig.ra Hippolita ha parti piu degne di me presso la 
gratia di questo Sig.re che non ho 10, che ben bo udtto le lodt infinite che li da; 
sopra a questo mt affaticat molto per farla credere lo contrarto, ma mi pare 
che non ottennt 11 fine che 10 desideravo, potché soggiunse se il Sig.r Cardinale 
Gonzaga mi tenesse nel concetto delle vostre ragiont, mt haverebbe fatta degna 
di qualche sua bella aria, atid la potesst cantare caro signore, me ne faccia degno 
dt una atid la possa sgnannare con questo argomento, con la qual occasione la 
prego anco a commettere al Sig.r Sante mt mandi la cantata nelli duot chitaroni 
promessami da V. 8. Ill.ma atid la possa fare udire a Sua Altezza Seren.ma 
convenire di sera nella sala de Speccht, che del tutto gle ne resterd obblig.mo 
servitore, et qui per fine li faccto humiltssima riverenza et li bacio le mani. 
Da Mantoa il 28 dicem.bre 1610. 


D.V. 8. Ill.ma. 
Humiliss.mo et obblig.mo Ser.re 


Claudio Monteverdi. 


[Anno 1611] 
IX. At CarpInALE FERDINANDO GONZAGA. 


I1l.mo et Rever.mo mio Sig.re et Padron Coll.mo 


Hor hora ho riceuto la carissima lettera da V. 8. Ill.ma con insieme li duot 
bellissimt Madrigal in musica, et questa et quelli, ho letto et riletto, cantati 
et ricantati, fra me dit subito baciatt et ribactata, con estrema consolatione, 
vedendo in quello quanto sia grande la amorevolezza di V.S. Ill.ma verso un 
suo minimo servitore come son to che nulla merita; ogni venere di sera st fa 
musica nella sala de speccht, viene a cantare in concerto la Sig.ra Arianna, 
et cost fatta forza, et particolar gratia da alle composttiont aportando col fatto 
diletto al senso, che quast novo teatro divien quel loco, et creddo che non st finirad 


SS ae 


MONTEVERDI’S LETTERS 241 


11 carnevale de concerti, che sara di bisogno che il Sereniss.mo Ducca facci stare 
guardia all entrata, che giuroaV.S. Ill.ma che questo Venere passato ad udire 
non solamente 11 Seren.mo Sig.r Ducca et Seren.ma Sig.a Duchessa, la Sig.a 
Donna Isabella di Sant’ Martino, Sig.re Marchese et Marchesa di Solfarino, 
Sig.rt Dame et Cavagliert di tutta la corte vi erano ma pin di cento signori 
altri de la Citta ancora, con tal bella occasione fard sonare li chitaront ali casa- 
lescht nel organo di legno 11 qual é soavissimo, et cosi cantera la Sig.a Andriana 
et D. Gio. Batt.a 11 Madregale bellissimo Ahi che morire mi sento, et altro 
madregale nel Porgano solamente, dimani partird le dette compositiont pre- 
sentandole alla Sig.a Andriana et so quanto le saranno care, ne voglio dirle il 
nome dell’ Autore sino a tanto che ella non le haverd cantate et de la riuscita 
del tutto ne dard ragguaglio a V. S. Ill. Non manchero di attendere a Fran- 
ceschino mio filiolo et servitore humilissimo dt V. S. Ill.ma atid impari tre virth 
Puna il servire a Dio con ogni diligenza et timore, Valtra le lettere, et terza 
un poco di musica che sino a quest hora mi pare che faccia assai bene et trillo 
et gorgia atid con 11 mezzo de la gratia di V. S. Ill.ma possa ottenere da Dito 
et da Sua Santita la gratia che ogni ora nelle mie debolt oration1 li prego. Io 
non so Ill.mo Signore se saret troppo ardito se la supplicasst hora, essendo vacato 
tl Vescoato di Novara qual’é di rendita 8000 scudi che st degnasse di intercedere 
qui sopra la penstone per il detto filiolo che lt pagasse la donzena, che sarebbe 
alla meno cento scuti d’oro, se fosst troppo presto in fastidirla mi perdont per 
Pamor di Dio, ma se anco potesst ricevere la gratia, 0 quanto contento al animo 
sentire: mi parrebbe di haver aquistato tutto Poro del mondo, caro Signore, se 
é possibile per sua infinita gratia mi aiuti, et risguarda pir alla sua infinita 
gentilezza in farmi favore, che alli miei meriti, che so benissimo ch’altro non 
bo in me, che quello ché nasce dalla sua infinita bonta, et a V. 8S. Iil.ma me 
Pinchino et li faccio humilissima riverenza, et li prego da N. S. ogni compita 
felicita. Da Mantova il 22 giugno 1611. 

D. V. S. Ill.ma et Reveren.ma i 
Humiliss.mo et obblig.mo Ser.re 


Claudio Monteverdi. 


[Anno 1613] 


X. At ConsIGLigERE ALESSANDRO STRIGGIO. 
Lll.mo mio Sig.re et padron Coll.mo 


Vengo a far saper a V. 8S. Ill.ma come ritrovandomti tn compagnia del cortero 
di Mantova partendomt con esso lui per Venetia, a Sanguanato non nel proprio 
loco ma se bene lontano da esso duot migha, da tre forfant: fora usciti fossimo 
svaligiati in cotal maniera, al improviso da un campo quale metteva capo sopra 
la strada corente usci fuora duot di chiera brunotta con poca barba et mezzant 


R 


242 MONTEVERDI’S LETTERS 


di statura, con un scioppo per uno da ruota longo con giu tl cane, et Puno di 
questi venendo da la banda mia per impaurirmi con 11 sciopo et Paltro mettendo 
le mani nella brilia a cavalli quali andasevano piano senza replica alcuna ne 
tirorno in um campo, et me facendomt inginochiare subbito smontato che fut 
et dimandandomt la borsa da uno de detti duot che havevano lt schiopt, et Paltro 
intorno al coriere dimandandole le valigi et tirate git dalla carrozza da ésso 
coriere ad una ad una gliele aperse et esso assassino pighiando c10 che li pareva 
et da esso coriere prontamente dandole il tutto et 10 pur tuttavia stando in 
ginochione cost tenuto da quel altro che haveva Varchebugio; pigliorno in tal 
maniera cid che a loro parvero, 11 terzo de tre assasini che haveva un spedo 
in mano et che haveva fatto la spia et tuttavia facendola tendendo che non ve- 
nisse gente dalla strada; quando hebbero ben bene rivoltato tutte le robbe, mi 
venne quello che cercava le robbe del coriere a torno a me et mi disse ch’10 mi 
spoghiasst che voleva vedere se 10 havevo altri denart, ma certificato che 10 non 
ne havevo, andod intorno alla mia serva per far 11 simile et essa atutandost 
con diverse preghiere scongiurt et pianti fece si che la lassio stare, di pot tor- 
nando alle robbe et alle valigte, fece un fagotto delle mighori et de le pin belle, 
et nel cercare per coprirst trovo 11 mio feratolo dt rassa longo novissimo che all’ hora 
a Cremona me lo havevo fatto et disse al coriere mettimt questo feratolo, et 
esso assasino vedendo che gh era longo disse damene un altro, cost pighio quello 
dt mio filtolo ma trovandolo troppo corto, disse alV hora il coriere, e sig.t di quel 
povero prettino donate glielo et egli st contento trovo ancora la veste di detto 
putto et fece il simile, et ancora de le robbe della serva il coriere ghele chiese 
tn dono con molte preghtere cosi gle le dono. Del resto fecero un fagotto grande 
et lo presero a bazzolo et portorno via; pot not pighassimo li avanzt et se ne 
andassimo al’ hosteria, alla mattina sequente dessemo la quarella a Sanguaneto, 
pot st partissimo, 10 molto sconsolato et giongessimo a Este; si pigho una barca 
per Padoa la quale ne tenne tutta la notte di giobia et quast tutto 11 venere 1n- 
sabtati, niuno curandost che passasse avanti finalmente su le venti hore a bona 
ploggia et vento sopra un burchio scoperto non vi essendo 1n poppa che vogasse 
che il nostro coriere 11 quale fece una bona fatica vogando giongessimo a Padova 
che apena ad una hora di notte potessimo entrare dentro, alla mattina del sabato 
levandost a bon hora per partirsi per Venetia stessimo pin di due bore di giorno 
a partirst, nel qual mentre che stessimo tn Padova il coriere mettendost un brac- 
cio al collo dicendo che cid era nato per quell’occastoné dé ........ quando fu sval- 
igiato, et 10 sapendo che nulla fu tocco ne anco cercato adie al carociere, 10 
rimast un altro, 11 qual atto di esso coriere diede da sospettare a tutti che erano 
con not che prima Phavevano visto senza male alcuno; et vi fu nella barca dt 
Padova che ci disse al coriere che dnventione é questa fratello et volendo soggiun- 
gere altre parole (diro forse in burla ) eglt st parti da tal ragionamento ; cost 
giongessimo eght giocando et ridendo in barca alle 24. del sabato in Venetia 
che pot vi stette se non due hore et riparti per Mantoa ; questo e statto 11 negotio 
di ponto ; et perché qui da me eé statto questo altro coriere dt Mantoa a lamen- 
tarst meco con dire che ha inteso che ho sospettato del coriere passato, gh ho 


MONTEVERDI’S LETTERS 24.3 


risposto che nulla ho sospettato eb che io Pho per homo da bene, ma e ben vero 
che ha fatto quel tal atto con metterst quel braccio al collo il sabato mattina per 
Poccastone scorsa del mercore passato di sera, et non fu chi lo tocasse, et esso 
navigd tutto 11 venere; Io vengo a far sapere a V.S. Iil.ma che nulla ho sos- 
pettato in questo homo che se mt fosse andato nell’animo tal pensiere di subbito 
no haveria datto ragualio a V. 8S. Ill.ma dico bene che di questo atto che fece il 
detto coriere con metterst il braccio al collo diede da pensare al giudictosissimo 
parere dt V. §. Ill.ma che quanto a me nulla penso et nulla cerco se non da la 
mano dt Dito. Lo Ill.mo Sig.re li certifico che mt hanno rubato per passa cento 
ducati venetiant tra robbe et denari dal sig.r Presidente hebbi gratia quando 
fut a Mantoa d’havere un semestre et ne avanzo ancora un altro gia tre mest 
sono maturo; 10 lt ho narato la mia disgratia grande se let mi volesse agratiar 
presso esso Sig.r Presidente d’una parola di favore benche sappia che la genti- 
lezza del Sig.r Presidente sia molta, 10 la riceveret a somma gratia che signore 
ne tengo infinitamente bisogno; et qui facendo una humilissima riverenza a 
V.S, Ill.ma 10 li prego da Dio ogni vera felicita. Da Venetia il 12 ottobre 1613. 
D. V. §. Lll.ma 


Humiliss.mo et obblig.mo Ser.re 


Claudio Monteverdi. 


XI. At Mepesrmo. 
Iil.mo mio singolar Sig.re et Padron Coll.mo 


Hoggt che ne habbiamo 11 del mese quasi su le 27 hore la lettera dt V. S. Iil.ma 
mi é statta datta dal dispensatore de le lettere de la posta; la quale ritorna 
a Mantova all hora prima di notte di questo stesso giorno, st che a ragione di 
dover esser alVordine per ventre sicome mt comanda, m1 bisogneria esser stato 
con li stivalt in piedi (come si suol dire ad essere a tempo de la barca del cor- 
riere; et adesso dt pot patire una mala notte causa dt pot dt qualche malatia 
mia ; oltre che 11 tempo statto gran pezzo bono, 51 é cangiato in ploggia in maniera 
che appena st pud uscire di casa; oltre che la lettera di V. S. Iil.ma mi fa una 
certa dolce 1stanza per la quale et per le ragiont sovradette ho preso ardire di 
non mettermt cosi affanato in viaggio, st per veder cid che fara il tempo, st 
per potermene andar a Padova di giorno aspettando cold il corriere con mia 
comodita, come anco per haver occastone dt veder dt farmt prolongare un poco 
di pin la licenza (come V. S. Ill.ma anco mi scrive ch ’10 procura) et realmente 
non pensano ne anche al futuro ordinario essere al ordine, come ben s1 piacera 
al Sig.re sard pronto ad ogni hora, poiché a dir il vero a V. S. LIll.ma stando 
Pandata di 8. A. 8. a Fiorenza mi credevo che ella al sicuro havesse ad havermt 
a comandare in Venetia et non in Mantoa, cioé che mi havesse da favorire a 
mandarmi la favola; la qual gratia se potesse V. 8. Ill.ma farlami essendo 
che in un stesso tempo schiveret le strade cattive, non dubiteres de fora uscitt, 


244 MONTEVERDI’S LETTERS 


et potrei servire anco Santo Marco, poiché avvicinandosi la settimana santa, 
nel qual tempo st fanno molte fontiont presente la Seren.ma Sig.ria che 1m essa 
settimana viene in chiesa percid mt saria dt molta mia comodita prego V. S. 
Iil.ma non argomentare che cid che ho detto nascht da animo non pronto di non 
ubbidire alli comandi suot perché realmente m1 conosco desiderosissimo di far cosa 
sempre che sij di gusto all’ A. S. sua, tanto pin questa trattandosi di compositione 
fatta per mano di quel Seren.mo Signore. Ma la supplico realmente a credere 
quanto ho detto di sopra essere la pura verita; ho posto sotto avanti a li occht 
di V. S. Iil.ma 11 tutto, atid per questo altro ordinario comandandomi possa 
lei credere che senza altra replica faro quanto mt accennera, che se risolvesse 
di mandar Topera, prometto a V. S. Ill.ma di affaticarmt intorno adessa pit 
di quello penserd, mandandole di settimana in settimana per il cortere quello 
che di giorno in giorno andero facendo ; et qui facendole a V. S. Ill.ma humilis- 
sima riverenza da Dio N. L. li prego il colmo d’ognt sua felicita. Da Venetia 
le 11 febraio 1615. 

D. V. S. Lil.ma 

Obblig.mo Serv.re 


Claudio Monteverdi. 


XII. At SeEGRETARIO DEL Duca pi Manrova. 


Ill. mio Sig.re et padron Coll.mo 


Spinto da le molte spese che mi convien fare per servitio de li miei duoi filioli 
desiderando che imparano lettere et si levino nel timor di Dio et honor del 
mondo che per questi rispetti tanto necessarit sempre mi é convenuto mantenerli 
con 11 loro maestro in casa mia che tra li uni et Paltro mi sono costati passa du- 
cento ducati al anno et ritrovandomene trecente da Santo Marco et cento dalla 
gratia della donatione che s1 degno concedermt la felice memoria del Ser.mo 
Sig.r Ducca Vincenzo, li quali cento non potendolt havere, et havendone molto 
bisogno, fect ricorso con una mia alla injinita bonta del A. Ser.ma del Sig.r Duca 
Ferdinando, gia un mese fa overo piu; et hebbt risposta dal Sig.r Cognato mio 
Capuzzino; V. 8. Ill.ma non solamente haver in mano la lettera mia ma anco 
una autorita dalla benignita di questa Seren. Altezza di potermi consolare 
non solamente de li cento scudi ch’10 havanzo dalla Camera Ducale per livelli 
scorst, ma di farmi havere il fondo dal quale ne posst cavare comodamente questa 
annua entrata; Quando udij dal Sig.r Cognato mio V. S. Ill.ma haver hauto 
tal comissione, restane sicura che di subbito me ne corst a ringratiar Dio dt 
cotanto segnalato favore et tutto mi rallegrat, sapendo quanto V. S. Ill.ma mi 
sta sempre statta mia protettrice et fautrice. Io non staro a dirle le mie fatiche 
passate le quali ne sento spesso hor alla testa hor alla vita mia per il pattir grande 
ch’io fect nel? Arianna ne staro a dirle lt duot filiolt aquistatt in Mantova 


ine S Nibley, 


MONTEVERDI’S LETTERS 245 


che pur ne fu cagione del Matrimonio mio il Sig.r Ducca Vincenzo; ne che mi 
sta partito da quella Seren.ma Corte cost disgraziamente che per Dio altro non 
portat via che venticinque scudi dopo 1] corso de 21 anni, ne insomma staro 
racontando altro a V. 8. Ill.ma perché so che del tutto e benissimo informata ; 
dird solamente et con infinita preghiera che si vogli degnare a far si ch’io resti 
consolato di questo benedetto fondo dal quale ne possi trarre queli benedetti cento 
scudt, st per godere segno delle mie fatiche et dela gratia della gloriosa memoria 
del Sig.r Ducca Vincenzo, et dell aiuto per giovare a miei povert filioli ; come 
anco per mostrare alli presenti Sig.rt Musict che servono la presente Ser.ma 
Altezza che so molto bene che sono et favoriti et honorati, che anco erano tali 
chi ha servito il Ser.mo Sig.r Ducca Vincenzo; caro Sig.re Ill.mo la prego per 
Pamor di Dio vogli in cid giovarmi che in un istesso giovera a miei filioli, al 
honor mio et al anima, et alla splendidezza del Sig.r Ducca Vincenzo che purre 
comanda Idio che la mercede non sia tenuta dalla sera alla matina al povero 
seruitore et la citta dt Venetia et altre ancora pur vederanno ch’10 sono 1n parte 
meritato, dove st stupiscono ora che nulla vedeno, non so che mt dire altro, se non 
rimettermt alla bonta di V. §. Ill.ma dalla quale spero ogni consolatione mia, 
per lo che 10 non manco ne mancherd ne me, ne miei povert filioli di pregar Dio 
per 11 colmo d’ogni sua esaltatione et 11 fine dogni suo honorato desiderio, et qut 
facendole humil riverenza li baccio le mant. Da Venetia 11 § novem. 1615. 
D. V. S. Ill.ma 
Obblig.mo Ser.re 


Claudio Monteverdi. 


[Anno 1616] 
XIII. At Duca pi Manrtova. 


Sereniss.mo Sig.re e Padron Coll.mo 


Il grandissimo bisogno nel qual mi trovo hora Seren.mo Sig.re dovendo neces- 
sariamente provedere la povera mia casa dt pane vino e altri molti, impoverito 
principalmente dalla carica de filiolt acquistati costi in Mantova a quali 
per la pericolosa libertad costa 1n Venetia son necessitato mantenerli un maestro 
et altre st per il caro vivere che qua st ritrova, mt sprona a supplicarla, con 
quel magnifico affetto d’animo ch’i0 posso et humuilta ch’1o devo farmi gratia 
commettere che sij dato in mano a mio Suocero almeno li denart di tre semestrt 
passati ch’io dalla Tesoreria avanzo; Sperando pot nell innata bonta sua d’es- 
sere nella prima occasione gratiato in riccompensa della longa servitu prestata 
a questa Seren.ma Casa del capitale di questi denari come per benignita sin- 
golare dell? A. V.S. 5b dignata rispondere in tal modo a mio Cognato Capuzzino 
qual sapendole mie calamitose necessita fu spinto presentar per caritaa V. A, 
caldissime preci e intanto pregard sempre Nostro Sig.re che conceda al A. V. 


246 MONTEVERDI’S LETTERS 


felicissimo stato, e a me presti gratia d’esser da lei per minimo servitore mai 
sempre conosciuto e con tal fine facio a V. A. S.ma humilissima riverenza. 
Di Venetia a 27 luglio 1616. 
D. Vostra Ser.ma Altezza. 
Humiliss.mo et devotiss.mo Ser.re 


Claudio Monteverd. 


XIV. At ConsiGLizRE ALESSANDRO STRIGGIO. 


Lll.mo mio Sig.re et Padron Coll.mo. 


Flo ricevuto con ogni allegrezza d’animo dal Sig.r Carlo Torri la lettera di 
V. S. Lll.ma et librettino contenente la favola marittima delle nozze di Tetide. 
V.S. Lll.ma mi scrive che let me la manda atid la vegga diligentemente et dopo 
glie ne scriva il parer mio dovendosi porre in musica per servirsene nelle future 
nozze dt §. A. 8. ma. Io Ill. mo S. che altro non desidero che valere in qualche 
cosa per servitio di S. A. S. altro non dird per prima risposta che prontamente 
offerirmt a quanto S. A. S.ma sempre si degnera comandarmti et sempre senza 
replica honorare et reverire tutto che 8. A. S.ma comandera. Siché se PA. S. S. 
ma aprobasse questa, questa per conseguenza sarebbe et bell.ma et molto a mio 
gusto, ma se let m1 agiunge ch’i0 dica, 10 sono ad ubedire alli comand: di V. S. 
Lll.ma con ogni reverenza et prontezza; intendendo che 11 mio dire sia un niente 
come persona che vaglia poco in tutto, et persona che honora sempre ognt virtuoso, 
in particolare il presente Sig.r poeta che non so il nome, et tanto pin quanto che 
questa professione della poesia non é mia. Dird dunque con ogni riverenza per 
ubidirla perché cosi comanda, dird. Dico prima in genere che la musica vol 
essere padrona del aria et non solamente dell’acqua, volio dire in mio linguaggio 
che li concerti descritti in tal favola son tutti basst et vicini alla terra, manca- 
mento grandissimo alle belle armonie, pot che le armonte saranno poste ne’ fiati 
pit grosst del? aria della terra, faticost da essere da tutti udits et dentro alla 
scena da essere concertate, et di questo ne lascio la sentenza al suo finiss.mo 
gusto et intelligent.mo, che per tal diffetto in loco d’un chitarone ce ne vorad 
tre, in loco d’un Arpa ce ne vorebbe tre, et va discorendo, et in loco d@una voce 
delicata del cantore ce ne vorrebbe una sforzata ; oltre di cid la imttatione propria 
del parlare dovrebbe a mio giuditio essere appoggiaia sopra ad ustrimenti da 
fiato pin tosto che sopra ad ustrimenti da corde et dilicati, poiché le armonte de 
tritont et altri det marini crederd che siano sopra a tromboni et cornette et 
non sopra a cettere o clavicenbani et arpe, poiché questa operatione essendo 
maritima per conseguenza é fuort della citta; et Platone insegna che cithara 
debet esse in civita, et thibia in agris. Siché, o che le delicate saranno inproprie, 
o le proprie non delicate. Oltre di cid ho visto li interlocutori essere Venti, Amo- 
retti, Zeffirett: et Sirene, et per conseguenza moltt soprant faranno di bisogno ; 


MONTEVERDI’S LETTERS 2477 


et saggiunge di pid che lt venti hanno a cantare, cioe li Zeffiri et li Borealis 
come caro Sig.re potro 10 1mitare il parlar de’ venti se non parlano? Et come 
potrd 10 con il mezzo loro movere lt affettt? Mosse l Arianna per essere donna, 
et mosse parimente Orfeo per esser homo, et non vento. Le armonie imittano 
loro medesime et non con Voratione et lt strepiti de’ venti, et 11 bellar delle pecore, 
il nitrir de’ cavallt et va discorendo, ma non imitano 11 parlar de’ venti che non 
st trovt. Lt ball: pot che per entro a tal favola sono sparsi non hanno piedi da ballo ; 
la favola tutta pot, quanto alla mia non poca ignoranza, non sento che ponto 
mt mova, et con difficolta anco la intendo, né sento che let mi porta con ordine 
naturale ad un fine che mt mova. L’ Arianna mi porta ad un giusto lamento et 
POrfeo ad una giusta preghiera, ma questa non so a qual fine; siché, che vole 
V.S. Ill.ma che la musica possa in questa? Tuttavia il tutto sard sempre da 
me acettato con ogni riverenza et honore quando che cost S. A. S.ma coman- 
dasse et gustasse, poiché @ padrona dt mt senza altra replica, et quando 
S. A. S.ma comandasse che st facesse in musica, vedendo che in questa pin deitatt 
che altro parlano, le quali piace udire le deitate cantar di garbo, diret che le 
Strene, le tre signore sorelle cioé S.ra Adriana et altre le potrebbono cantare, 
et altrest comporsele. Cost il Sig. Rast la sua parte, cost wl S.r. D. Francesco 
parimente et va discorendo née li altri Sig.rt. Et qut imitare il Sig.r Cardinal 
Montalto che feceuna comedia che ogni sogetto che in essa interveniva st com- 
pose la sua parte. Che se fosse cosa questa che ben desse ad un sol fine, come 
Arianna et Orfeo ben si ct vorebbe anco una sola mano, cioé che tendesse al 
parlar cantando, et non come questa al cantar parlando, et la considero anco 
in questo pensamento troppo longa in ciascheduna parte nel parlare, dalle sirene 
in pot et certa altra ragionatezZa. 

... Mi scust caro Sig.re se troppo ho detto, non per detraere cosa alcuna, ma 
per desiderio di ubedire alli suot comandamenti, che havendola da porre in mu- 
Sica, sé cost m1 fosse comandato, possa V. S. Ill.ma considerare lt miei pensa- 
menti ; Mi tenghi la supplicco con ognt affetto devotissimo et humiliss.mo Ser- 
vitore a quella Seren.ma Altezza alla quale faccio humilissima riverenza 
et aV.S. Ill.ma bacto con ogni affetto le mani et li prego da Dio il colmo d’ognt 
felicita da Venetia il g dicembre 1616. 

D. V. S. Ill.ma alla quale auguro con ogni affetto le bone feste. 

Humiliss.mo Ser.re et obblig.mo 


Claudio Monteverdi. 


XV. At Mepesimo. 
Iil.mo mio Sig.re et Padron Coll.mo 


Mi perdoni V. S. Ill.ma se non ho procurato con mie lettere di sapere da 
V.S. Lll.ma la risposta de la mia che gid venti giornt sono 10 inviai a V. S. 


248 MONTEVERDI’S LETTERS 


Iil.ma per risposta de la gentilissima sua quale insieme fu acompagnata con 
la favola Marittima de le Nozze di Thetide per intendere da lei cid che tntorno 
ad essa 10 mi dovevo fare havendo V. S. Ill.ma scritto nella sua che avant 
to mt facessi altro dovesst scriverliene a lei il mio parere. Questa tardanza 
mia e divenuta dalla fatica fatta della Messa della Notte di Natale, che tra 
11 comporla et rescriverla mt e convenuto spendere tutto 11 mese di Dicembre 
quasi senza intentione alcuno; hora che per gratia del Sig.re mie ne trovo libero 
et il tutto passato honoratamente me ne vengo con questa di novo a V. S. Ill.ma 
dicendole che mt honort di farmi sapere cid che desidera che facet VA, S. 8. che 
trovandomt disoccupato, poiché passato tal fatica de la Notte et giorno dt Natale 
per un pezzo mt staro senza haver che fare in Santo Marco percid comincero 
a far qualche cosetta intorno a detta favola se cosi comandera ne altro faro per 
sino a nova comissione di V.S. Ill.ma to Pho ritornata a riguardare pik minu- 
tamente et diligentemente et quanto a me li veggo molti soprant far di bisogno, 
et molti tenort, pochissimi dialogi et que pochi parlano et non cantano di vaghezze 
insteme, cantar a cort altri non v1 sono che li Argonauti nella nave, et questo 
sara 11 pin vago et il pit galiardo et si risolvera pot im set voct et set 1stromenti, 
vt sono benst li Zefiretti et li Venti Boreali; ma questi non so come habbino a 
cantare, ma ben so che soffiano e sibillano, et aponto Virgilio parlando de vents 
adopera questo verbo sibillare, quale aponto imita nel pronunctarlo Teffetto 
del vento; Vt sono altri duot cort, Puno de Neretdi et Paltro di Tritont, ma 
questi pare a me che anderebbono concertati sopra ad ustrimenti da fiato, che 
se dovesse essere cosi, adimando a V. S. Ill.ma che diletto ne riuscira al senso 
et perché V. S. Ill.ma possa ancora lei diligentemente veder questa veritate. 
Mando a V. §. Ill.ma sopra alla presente carta qui inclusa Pordine de le sene 
come stanno sopra a detta favola poste atio mi favorisca di dirmi il parer suo; 
Il tutto pero stara benissimo che dipendera da la mente di S. A. S. alla quale 
prontamente et me Pinchino et me Pestbisco humilissimo servitore. Staro dunque 
aspettando risposta da V. §. Ill.ma et quanto si degnera comandarm1, fra tanto 
che qut humilmente li bacio le mani et pregole con ogni affetto di core 11 com- 
pimento d’ogni suo honoratissimo penstero, da Venetia il 29 dicembre 1616. 
D. V.S. Ill.ma 
Obblig.mo et Devotiss.mo Ser.re 


Claudio Monteverdi. 


[ANNo 1617] 
XVI. At MepEsimo. 


Iil.mo mio Sig.re et Padron Coll.mo 


La carissima lettera di V. 8S. Ill.ma hora da me riceuta insieme con la carta 
che mi dinota li personaggi che hanno ad operare nella favola di Tetide, mba 


MONTEVERDI’S LETTERS 249 


recato chiarezza molta nel far cosa che posst essere a proposito secondo il gusto 
di V.S. Ill.ma che so che insteme anco sara di gusto dt S. A. S. al quale desidero 
con ogni affetto far cosa che li agrada; Io Ill.mo Sig.re che all hor scrisst la prima 
lettera in riposta della prima sua confesso che la favola mandatami da let, non 
havendo sopra di se altra intitolatione che questa Le Nozze dt Tetide, favola 
marittima ; confesso dicco, che ella fosse cosa da essere cantata et rapresentata 
in musica come fu Arianna. Ma dopo intest dalla passata di V. S. Ill.ma 
che ha da servire per intermedij de la comedia grande. Sicome 1n quel senso 
primo to me la credevo cosa di poco rilievo cosi per lo contrario 1n questo seconda 
me la creddo degna cosa et nobilissima. Manca pero al mio parere per conclustone 
del tutto dopo Pultimo verso che dice 


Torni sereno il ciel, tranquillo il mare 


manca dicco una canzonetta in lode de Seren.mt Prencipi spost Parmonia de 
la quale possa essere udita in cielo, et in terra de la sena et alla quale possano 
nobilt ballarini far nobil danza che cost nobil chiusa mi par convenire a cost 
nobile vista proposta et insteme sé st potesse acomodare a metro di ballo i versi 
che le Nereidt haveranno a cantare al tempo de quali st potesse far ballare con 
legiadro modo esperti ballarint mi par che sarebbe cosa molto pint propria; 
Ho un poco di oppositione contro alli tre canti de le tre Sirene, et é questa che 
dubito se haveranno a cantar tutte tre separatamente che troppo lunga rius- 
cira Popera ali ascoltanti, et con poca differenza, potché tra Puna et Paltra 
fara de bisogno sinfonia che tramexz1, tirate che sostentino 11 parlare et trilli, 
et in genere riuscira una certa similitudine, che percid giudicheret anco per va- 
riatione del tutto che interzatamente li duot primt madregaletti, hor da una et 
hor da due voci insieme gossero cantati, ed 1 terzo da tutte tre insieme. La parte 
di Venere parte prima che vien dopo 11 pianto di Peleo et prima ad essere udita 
nel cantar di garbo cioé in tirate et trilli haveret giudicato per bene che dovesse 
essere cantata forst anco dalla Sig.ra Adriana come voce forte, et dalle due altre 
sue Sig.re sorelle servita per risposta dt eco stando che Poratione ha dentro questo 
verso: E sfavillin @’ Amor li scogh e Ponde = ma prima preparando li animi 
de li ascoltanti con una sinfonia dt ustrimentt, contenente se fosse possibile mezza 
la sena perché prevegono avanti questi duot versi di Peleo dopo fatto il pianto 


Ma qual per I’aria sento 
Celeste soavissimo concento ! 


Et creddo chi la Sig.ra Adriana haverebbe tempo di transvestirsi, 0 pure 
ad una de le tre altre Sig.re. Sino a quest hora 10 m1 vo credendo che sara in essere 
da cento et cinquanta et forst pin verst, et creddo che questa altra settimana 
non sara fuori che se piacera al Signore tutti lt soliloqut saranno fatti, cioé 
quelli che parlano, mt ponerd pot dietro a quelli che cantano di garbo; piacia a 
Dio che st come mi ho destderostssimo animo dt far cosa che s1j di gusto a questo 
Seren.mo Sig.re che cosi anco Veffetto mt riescht, atid li effettt mt servono per 
vert testimoni presso alla gratia di S. A. S. che tanto bramo et riverisco, et alla 


250 MONTEVERDI’S LETTERS 


quale in ogni stato et loco sempre me li dedicherd per humilissimo servitore non 
meno restando obblig.mo Servitore a V. S, Ill.ma che si va degnando mantenermt 
vivo in quella con li suot gentilissimi costumt et honoratiss.me mantere, et qui 
facendo humilissima riverenza a V. S. Ill.ma pregole da Dio con ogni caldo 
affetto 11 colmo d’ogni sua vera esaltatione. Da Venetia il 6 gennaio 1617. 
D. V. S. Ill.ma 
Obblig.mo et Devotiss.mo Servitore 


Claudio Monteverdi. 


XVII. At Mepesimo. 


Ill.mo mio Sig.re et padron Coll.mo 


Mi havisa V. 8S. Ill.ma del stabillimento del matrimonio di §. A. 8S. con 
Toscana dal quale horamo ne havera da nascere la sicura risolutione del far 
qualche cosa in musica per questa Pasqua, come ben a questo fine let mi mandera 
nova favola da porre in musica; se questo rispetto del servire al A. 8. del Sig. 
Ducca di Mantoa mio antico Signore non mi teneva in Venetia al stcuro me ne 
transferivo sino a Fiorenze, invitato da una lettera caloratissima del Sig.r 
Ottavio Rinuzzint che mt havisa con la bella occastone del Seren.mo Sig.r 
Ducca di Mantoa vogliamt transferire a Firenze che non solamente sarod ben 
visto da tutta quella nobilta ma da lo stesso Seren.mo Gran Ducca; che oltre 
alle presenti nozze dt Mantoa ancora altre se ne sperano che percid haveret 
non poco gusto quast quast significandomt che sare1 statto inpiegato in qualche 
fatica musicale et mt havisa le nozze con il Seren.mo di Mantoa esserst con- 
clust con grandissimo applauso di tutta la cittd di Firenze che nostro Stg.re 
sty quello che anco cosi sempre li facet caminare per gusto del Ser.mo Sig.r Ducca 
dt Mantoa et dt tutte le cttta sue che cosi con ogni affetto desiderero sempre bene 
et lielo pregherd da Dio a quella Seren.ma Casa. Staro dunque aspettando 
quanto V. §. Ill.ma mi comandera havertendola, che 1] presto con il bene insieme 
non conviene. V oglio dire se ella stara tardi non st lamentera di me se non havero 
fatto et 10 haveret con 11 tempo potuto et creduto. Mandando in questa vece il 
mio prontissimo animo a supplire per me et devotissimo 11 quale anco hora con 
il medesimo rispetto fa riverenza aV. 8S. Ill. et li prega da Dio ognt esaltatione 
et felictta. Da Venetia il 20 gennaio 1617. 

DoF 2 &. Titama 

Ser.re Humiliss.mo et aff.mo 


Claudio Monteverdi. 


MONTEVERDI’S LETTERS Pa 


[Anno 1619] 
XVIII. At Mepesimo. 


Ill.mo mio Sig.re et padron Coll.mo 


Et la passata et la presente lettere di V. 8. Ill.ma ho ricevuto ma ben si con 
questa differenza, che 10 essendo andato ad acompagnare Francesco mio filiolo 
primo a Bologna passate che furno le prime feste di Natale con occasione di 
levarlo da Padoa per levarlo dal bon tempo che P'Iil.mo Sig.r Abbate Morosint li 
somministrava per 11 mezzo de la sua gentilezza per godere d’un poco del cantare 
del putto, qual alla fine mi sarebbe riuscito pin tosto bon cantore con li altri 
agiont1, come sarebbe a dire (ma e meglio ch’io me li taccia) che mexzano 
dottore, et purre 11 mio pensiere vorebbe che fosse in questo secondo bono, et nel 
primo mediocremente, et per adornamento, st che per causa di giovare al putto 
come ben ho fatto, et a la mia sodtisfatione; me ne andai dico ad acomodarlo 
in Bologna in dozina de Padri de Servi nel qual convento vi st legge quotidiana- 
mente et si disputa; et 1v1i son statto per tal acidente da 15 giornt, si che tra 
Pandare, tornare et stare, appena posso dire d’essere gionto 1n Venetia nel cut 
mio arrivo la detta prima di V. S. Ill.ma mi fu consegnata; et se questa pre- 
sente seconda hor hora dalla posta riceuta non havesst hauto, come debitore 
ch’10 ero in rispondere alla humantssima lettera di V. S. Ill.ma per questo pre- 
sente cortere che st ritorna, havevo determinato far sapere a V. S§. Ill. quanto 
anco al presente ho a let di sopra narato; Spero come gentiliss.ma acettera la 
mia vera scusa per legittima; assicurandola certo che se a tempo 10 havesst hauto 
la prima lettera et che 10 non fosst stato da urgenti necessita 1mpedito di gia 
haveret mandato ad effetto quanto si e dignata comandarmt. Ma potché V. 
S. [il.ma st contenta haver il ballo per questa Pascha, stano sicura d’haverlo, ne 
faret questo cost gran mancamento apresso di me di non far tutto ch’10 possa per 
servirla per mantenermi tanto suo Servitore con li effetti quanto faccio professione 
@esserle et in voce et in tscritto. Dio N. S. conceda 11 colmo d’ognt compita 
felicita a V. S. Ill.ma alla quale per fine factole riverenza et li bacto le honorate 
mant da Venetia il g febraio 1619. 

D. V. S. Lll.ma 


Ser.re devotissimo 


Claudio Monteverdi. 





XIX. At Secretario pucate Ercore Maric iiant (?) 


Ill. mio Sig.re et padron Coll.mo 


Poiche V. S. Ill.ma mi concede gratia di un poco di tempo im serivere la 
musica sopra alle bellissime parole di V. S. Ill.ma accetterd sl favore, per i 


252 MONTEVERDI’S LETTERS 


affari della settimana santa ch’io havero in Santo Marco et per le feste ancora, 
che certamente non sono pochi al maestro di capella in tali tempt, oltre che 
potret ancora star meglio di sanita di quello che al presente m1 ritrovo, et sto 
aspettando il bon tempo per far un poco di una purghetta, cosi il Sig. Medico 
m1 ba consigliato allora poi mi trovero libero et sano se piacera a Duo, che 
saran due cause da tre levate qual non m’impediranno ricevere il favore dt 
servire a V. 8S. Ill’ma che tanto bramo, et alla quale sono tanto tenuto et obli- 
gato, che per fine facio humiliss.ma riverenza pregandole da N. 8. ogni 
compita felicita. Da Venetia il 7 marzo 1619. 
D. V.S. Ill.ma 


Ser.re di vero core 


Claudio Monteverdi. 


[Anno 1620] 


XX. At Conte ALESSANDRO STRIGGIO, 


Iil.mo mio Sig.re et padron Coll.mo 


Ho ricevuto la carissima lettera di V. S. Ill.ma ma cost tardi dal cortere 
che apena ho potuto haver tempo da scrivere la presente in risposta, non che 
per mettermi al ordine, et manco per pigliar licenza dal Seren.mo et Sig.ri 
Ecc.mt Procuratort miet padroni come e di necessario sempre fare, che sa bene 
VS. Ill.ma che chi é servo convien vivere sotto ubidienza ; oltre che di sanita 
potret anco star meglio, perché non poco ho faticato questo carnevale; si che 
me ne piange 11 core non poter ubidire a suot comand pit per mostrar effettt 
che li sono ubtdiente servitore; ché sperare al presente sicurezza deffetto dt 
quel ch’1o bramo, che é il poter una volta godere certamente quelle terre che il 
Ser.mo Sig.r Ducca Vincenzo si degno promettermi in donatione, poiché dal 
singolar ufficio che per me si e degnata fare presso 11 Ser.mo dico ufficio tale che 
mi terra per sin ch’io vivo obligato a V. S. Ill.ma ho visto sicome 11 solito bona 
speranza di futuro V. S. Ill.ma havervi tratto; ma non gia come ho sempre 
bramato et come tutta via bramo, potere havere 11 presente; poiché le formate 
sue parole sono queste cioé; e se bene non cavai all hora risolutione prest tuttavia 
grande speranza, che venendo ella in qua questo Carnevale sia per ottenere lo 
intento; risposta Sig.r Ill.mo che sempre per mia disgratia da la Sereniss.ma 
Casa Gonzaga ho hauto, perche sempre ho ottenuto il futturo ma non gia il 
presente onde che ne resto cosi impaurito, che se mt fosse statto concesso dal 
tempo et da la sanita il poter ubidire alli presenti comandi di V.S. Lil.ma 10 
son dt certo che sarei ritornato, con le solite speranze in maniera; et haveret 
riportato come fect anche la passata volta sospitione di cangiar padrone poiché 
fu messo in pensiero qui al Ser.mo che 10 ero venuto a Mantova per muttar 
servitio, ne durai poca fatica in levarle tal suspettos; mi fara dunque gratia 


MONTEVERDI’S LETTERS 253 


7, S. Ill.ma perdonarmi se non vengo di lungo al ubidienza de suoit comandt, 
per Pimpedimenti detti, et poiché st é degnata honorarmi di promessa di pre- 
sentare a nome mio a Madama Ser.ma lt miet madregali; ecco li inviati a 
mio suocero qual li vera a portare a VS. Ill.ma et la servira sino da Madama; 
et la supplico a far mia scusa sopra le ragioni de li impedimenti di sopra narateli 
et farl: fede ch’to le vivo honoratiss.mo et devotiss.mo servitore, et mi racomando 
nel mio genotio, alla infinita bonta del A. S. sua. Ecco la sinfonia per amore ; 
et Paltra per la entrata se in altro mi conosce bono V. S. Ill.ma per Pamor di 
Dio mi facct degno de suot honorati comandi che maggior favore non potro rice- 
vere dalla buona mia fortuna; et qui basandole con tutto Paffetto del core le 
mant da Dio li prego il colmo d’ognt felicita. Da Venetia il 22 febraio 1620. 
D. V. 8S. Ill.ma 
Ser.re obblig.mo 


Claudio Monteverdi. 


X XI. At Mepesimo. 
Iil.mo mio Sig.re e padron Coll.mo 


Havero tanto obligo a V. S. Ill.ma in vitta mia che se to spendesst st pud 
dire il sangue mt conosco certamente che non pagheret 11 debito, pregherd Dio 
per sempre che cola dove non potranno le debil forze mie voglia sua Divina 
Maesta entrar in mio aiuto. La carissima lettera di V. 8S. Ill.ma mi é pervenuta 
tard1 alle mant, s1 che mi fara gratia darmt tempo persino al venturo ordinario 
ch’i0 possa pensare sopra al secondo capo dt essa, se ben sia certissimo che pas- 
sando per le mani di V. S. Ill.ma non potrebbe havere se non fine dt mio meglio 
et di mia quiete nulla dt meno m1 sara favore sommo ché ella st contenti per 
Pordinario che viene de la risposta; supplicandola pero, che tal proposta fattamt 
dalla injinita bonta di S. A. S. 0 riussendo 0 no Veffetto, nulla sia penetrata da 
qual st voglia cantore ne sonatore ne da altro de la professione musica di S. A. S. 
facendola certa che non tantosto Phaverebbero intesa quanto anco dt subbito 
Phaverebbero qui a Venetia publicata, et tutto riuscirebbe a danno mio; Et 
questa fu una de le principal cause che nulla volst trattare di detto negottio con 
tl Sig.r D. Francesco Dognazzt di quando a questo novembre passato st trovo 
qui in Venetia, con questo segnalato favore di farmt da parte di §. A. S. che 
fu medesimamente Pofferirmi 11 servitio, ma egl per essere de la professione 
per conseguenza poteva haver passione neé cost ritenente in se il tutto che non 
passo troppo dopo la sua partita che mi pervenne al orecchia, che era sparso 
voce che turnavo a Mantoa ma di pir gid un mese fa lasciandomi tntendere che 
ritornate le loro Altezze da Casale volevo portarle a presentar li detti miet 
libri; Il Sig. Ill, Premicerio filiolo del Ecce.mo Sig.r Procuratore mio Sig. de 
Ca Cornari ’, mi disse questo vostro andare di Mantova, si crede sia per andarle 


254 MONTEVERDI’S LETTERS + 


a stare. Et questo forst e statto uno de mighort capt che mt ha tenuto a non portar 
in persona dettt libri perché caro Sig.re ms deve essere pin cara la sostanza 
che Pacidente, Hor che il negotio si trova in mano di V. S. Ill.ma che a tutte 
le qualita che st aspetta al trattare tutto con mio utile, et senza alcuno mio 
danno, percio nel venturo ordinario, dirolle il penster mio, cercando di poggtarlo 
sopra a cosi fatto giusto, che quando non riuscisse spererd che non sia per aportarmt 
ponto di danno ne al presente mio servitio, ne apresso alla gratia dt S§. A. S. 
la quale honoro et riverisco quanto ogni mio bene maggiore che possa havere 
a questo mondo ; Ho inteso la riuscita che ha fatto quelle mie deboli notte, aiutate 
protette et solevate dal molto et infinito merito delle bellisstme parole di V. S. 
Ill.ma non men ammirate et honorate da quests Sig.rt Ill.mi di quello che da 
me hora son predicate, et lo dico di vero et real core, et non meno solevate alla 
gratia di S§. A. S. altrettanto dalla infinita bonta di V. S. Ill.ma che pero con 
ragione li dovero anco essere per sempre obligato che nel modo dt sopra ho narato 
aV.S. Ill.ma alla quale facto humil riverenza et da Dio li prego con ogni caldo 
affetto 11 colmo d’ognt felicita aspettando ricevere dalla larga mano di let 
per quanto st e degnata promettermi nella sua per lo venturo ordinario. Da 
Venetia li 8 marzo 1620. 
DV. 8. Lilama 
Oblig.mo Ser.re 


Claudio Monteverdi. 


XXII. At MeEpesimo. 


Ill.mo mio Sig.re et Pat.ne Coll.mo 


Vengo a rispondere al capo secondo de la lettera di §.V.IIl. ma sopra al 
quale pighiat tempo di risposta sino al presente ordinarto. Dico dunque a V-.S. 
Iil.ma per prima cosa che Vhonore singolare che ha fatto §.A.8. alla persona 
mia in farmi questa singolar gratia dt offerirmi di bel novo il servitio suo mi @ 
stato cosi grato al animo et di cosi fatto favore che mt confesso non haver lingua 
che possa esprimere cosi signalata gratia, essendo che gli anni miei spesi di 
mia gioventiu a quel S.mo servitio hannomi cosi fattamente radicato nel cuore 
una memoria di obligo et di benevolenza et di riverenza verso quella S.ma casa 
che sino che haverd vita pregherd Dio per quella, et li bramerd quella maggior 
felictta che servitore a quella inchinato et obligato possa augurarle et bramarle, 
Et certam.te che se 10 non havesst altro riguardo che a me medesimo solo, s’as- 
sicurt V SIM. che saret sforzato a volare s’10 potesst, non che correre alli co- 
mandi dt S.A.S. senza altro pensamento ne altra pretentione, ma havendo et 
questa S.ma Repub.ca et filiolt che mi sforzano a pensar seconda cosa per tanto 
sopra a questt duot capt m1 concedera ch’io possa far un poco dt discorso credendo 
anco aiuto parimente dalla bonta di V.S.IIl. sopra a cid sapendo quanto nella 


ee 


MONTEVERDI’S LETTERS ass 


prudenza ella molto vaglia et nel carita fraterna. Metterd dunque in considera- 
tione a V.S.1U. come che questa S.ma Republica mai a qual altro per avanti 
mio antecessore o s1j stato Adriano o Cipriano, 0 Zarlino od altro, ha datto 
che ducento ducati di salario et a me ne da 400, favore che non deve cosi di 
leggero da me essere passato senza non poca consideratione, poiché Ill. S.re questa 
S.ma S.1a non innova una cosa senza una ben pesata consideratione, onde che 
(torno) questa particolar gratia deve da me essere molto ben risguardata, né 
dopo fattami non se ne sono mai pentiti anzi mi hanno honorato et mi bonorano 
tuttavia in cosi fatta guisa che in capella non st accetta cantore che prima 
non piglino 11 parere del M.ro di capella, ne vogliono altra relatione di cause 
di cantort che quella del M.ro di capella, né accettano, né organisti ne Vice 
M,ro se non hanno il parere et la relatione da esso M.ro di capella, né vi é 
Gentilhomo che non mi stimi et honort, et quando vado a far qualche musica o 
sta da camera 9 chiesa, giuro a V.S.1Il. che tutta la citta corre. Il servitio 
pot é dolcissimo poiché tutta la capella é sottoposta al ponto, eccetto 11 M.ro 
dt capella, anzi che in man sue sta il far pontare et dispontare il cantore, il 
dar licenza o no, et se non va in capella non v1 é chi altro dichi ; et la provigion 
sua é certa sin alla morte, né la disturba morte né di Procuratori né di Principe 
et sempre con il servire fedeliss.te et con riverenza sta pretendendo maggior- 
mente, et non per lo contrarto, et li denari de le sue paghe se a suo tempo non 
le va a pighiare li vengono sino a casa portate ; et questo é il primo rispetto in 
quanto al essentiale, v1 é mo Paccidentale, che é, che di stravagante con mio 
comodo guadagno fuort di S. Marco, pregato et ripregato da Sig.rt Guardiant 
di scole, da 200 ducati al anno, perché chi puo havere tl M.ro di capella in far 
le loro musiche, oltre al pagamente di trenta, anco di 40 et sino a 50 ducati, 
per dut vespri et una messa, non mancano dt pighiarlo, et li rendono anco gratie 
di belle parole dopo. Hor V.S.Ill. pesa mo con la bilanza del suo purgatissimo 
giuditio quel tanto che ella mi ha offerto a nome di S.A.S.ma, et vegga se con 
vero et real fondamento potret fare 11 cambio o no, et per prima considert di 
gratia V.S.1ll. che danno mi darebbe nella reputatione presso questt Ill.mit 
Sig.ri, et a S.A. medesima sto consentissi che questi presenti dinart ch’1o mt 
ritrove in mia vita st cambiassero in quelli della Thesorerta dt Mantoa, che 
mancano alla morte del Principe 0 a suo minimo disgusto, lasctandone di pin 
450 di Mantova ch’1o mi trovo havere da questa Thesoreria di Venetia, per 
venirne a pigliare 300 come haveva quel S.r Santi. Che cosa con ragtone contro 
di me non direbbero questi Sig.ri? E vero che ella mi agionge ancora di pin 
da parte di S.A.S. 150 scudi di terre quali saranno libere mie, ma a questo 
rispondo, che non occore che il S.mo mi dona quello che é mio, non saranno 150 
ma si bene 50, poiché li 100 di gid mi deve S.A., onde non occorre mettere in 
conto quello che é gid un altra volta da me con sudore et infinita fatica aqutstato ; 
st che non sarebbero in tutto che 350, et qui me ne ritrovo 450 et 200 altri di 
straordinario. Percid vegga V.S.1ll. che il mondo senza altro direbbe contro 
di me molto, et se non fossero altri, che cosa non direbbe una Adriana, un suo 
fratello, un Campagnolo, un D.n Passano, che sono sino ad hora molto et molto 


256 MONTEVERDI’S LETTERS 


pin riconosciuti et meritati? Et che vergogna non haverei io di loro vedendoli 
stati meritati piu di me? La citta pot di Venetia? Lo lascio considerare a V.S. 
Ill. Fu miglior partito che mi offerse S.A.S. per bocca del S.r Campagnolo, dt 
quando mt trovat nella morte del S.r Santi a Mantova, alloggiato in casa dt 
detto S. Campagnolo che fu 300 scudi d’entrata di terre, 200 de quali haves- 
sero da intenderst miei sino alla morte et 100 per pagamento del mio livello o 
donatione et perché disst di non voler haver che fare con la Tesorerta, me ne 
offerse altre 200 di pensione, che in tutto venevano ad essere da 600 dit Mantoa, 
et hora vorrebbe S.A.S. che mi rivolvessi a manco di gran lunga, con andar 
dal S.r Thesortere ogni di a suplicarlo che me dasse il mio? Dio me ne guardi. 
Non ho in vita mia patito maggior affitione di animo di quella di quando mi 
bisognava andar a dimandare il mio quasi per amor di Dio al S.r Thesortere, 
m1 contenteret piuttosto andar cercando che tornar a simile impertinenza. 
Prego V.S.Ill. a perdonarmi sto parlo liberamente, et si comptacia per questa 
volta et per amor mio, che li sono servitore di vero core, di ascoltarmi con la 
parte della sua infinita umanita, no con la parte de’ suoi singolart meritt. Il 
S.r Ecc.mo Procuratore Landi quando insieme con lt altri S.rt Ecc.mi forno 
col crescermt 100 altri ducati, disse quel S.re le formate parole: S.r Ecc.mo 
collega, cht vole 11 servitore bonorato bisogna anco tratarlo honoratem.te. St 
che se il S.r duca ha pensiero che mi habbia a vivere honoratamente, é il giusto 
che in tal mantera mi tratti, se anche non lo supplico a non scomodarmt, potché 
std honoratamente et V.S.IIl. se ne informt. Tacio il capo de filiolt, perché 
parlando con V.S.Ill. che é ancora lei padre di famigha, sa benessimo che ris- 
guardo bisogna che habbi un padre che ha desiderio, et che deve per legge dt 
natura havere per honore di se medesimo, et de la casa che resta adietro. La 
conclustone mia Ill. S.re é questa, che 1n quanto a Claudio, di gid st mette in 
tutto et per tutto al volere et comando di S.A.S. in quanto mo con li rispetts 
detti considerato, non pud con honor suo mutare se non muta in meglio, atid 
potesse licentiarst da questi Ecc.mt S.rt con sua real sodtsfatione, essendo stato 
da esst S.rt cosi honorato et favorito, per non essere anco burlato da chi con poco 
merito ha meritato molto, et non essere biasimato né dal mondo né da filiolt. Et ben 
potrebbe S.A.S. con sua comodita, hora essendo passato a mighor vita il S.r 
Ill. Vescovo dt Mantoa con pensione sodisfare et con un poco pin dt terre, senza 
mettere 11 Monteverdi alli disgusti dt Thesoreria, et alla incertezza dt quella. 
Quattro cento scudt dt Mantoa insomma di pensione et 300 dt terre sarebbero 
pocht 8.4.8, et a Claudio il suo vero et real riposo, et che forse adimanda 1mpos- 
sibilitate? Adimanda insomma anco di manco dt quello haveva una Adriana 
et forse dt una Settimia, et adimanda quello che di presente si trova. Altro 
non vt scorge di diferenza che quel poco di stabile, che pure é il dovere che lassi 
qualche cosetta a filioli, et se li lascterd di quello donato dalla S.ma Casa Gon- 
Zaga anco sara ad honore perpetuo di quella per haver aiutato un servitore 
dt cotantt annt, ne forse anco sprezzato da Principt. Et se questo troppo a S.A.S. 
mt honort di farmi segnare le mie poche terre, che 10 me ne staro nel capitale, 
poiché li 400 ducati che qui mi trovo sono come pensione, et §.A.S. haverd il 


ia 


MONTEVERDI’S LETTERS 267 


servitore bell’ pagato, che se si degnara comandarle, vedra che per servire, 
di bella mezza notte si leverad dal letto par far maggiormente Pubedienza. 
Mi perdonit VSM. 810 son stato troppo longo altro non mi resta di pre- 
sente che non le viscere del core ringratiar V.S.1Ul. del singelar favore fattomi 
in haver presentato li miet madrigali a quella S.ma Sig.ra, et son certo che per 
Phonoratis.mo mezzo di V.S.IIl. saranno stati molto pik acesst et grati Dio 
agionga per me dove 10 non posso in felicitar la honoratissima persona dt V.S. 
Ill.mo alla quale con tutto Paffetto del core nel Pinchino e bacio le mant... Da 
Venetia il 13 marzo 1620, 
DVS. Lil.ma 
S.re Ob.mo. 


Claudio Monteverdi. 


XXII. Ar Mepesimo. 
Ill.mo mio Sig.re et padron Coll.mo 


Io non so se haverd fatto bene 0 no ad haver scritta la presente a Madama 
Seren.ma in ringratiamento di cosi signalato favore che si é degnata farmi me 
né 11 mezzo della particolar petitione di V. S. Ill.ma con lo havermi mandato 
a donare quella bella collana per 11 cortere ; mi fara gratia V.S. Ill.ma darlieng 
una occhtata et quando che ella giudica essere a proposito supplicare V.S. Ill.ma 
farla tirare et presentarghiela; quando che no, supplico degnarst dt complire 
con la sua conpitezza al mio bisogno, ringratiandone 1 A.S.S da parte mia, 
con quel maggior affetto che puod. 

Supplico anco V. S. Ill.ma far 11 simile ufficio verso 11 Ser.mo Sig.r Duca 
mio Singolar Signore; come principal mittore di cosi signalata graha., 

Invio a V. 8S, Ill.ma il rimanente dell’ Arianna, se pir havesst hauto tempo 
pin diligentemente sarebbe statta da me revista et forst anco di gran lunga 
mighorata; non mancherod alla giornata di far qualche cosa in tal genere dt 
canto rapresentativo, et pix volontiert se ella maggiormente con suot bellissimt — 
versi me née fara degno, per mostrar segni di questo animo mio quanto brama 
mantenerst nella gratia di quell’ A. S., et quanto brama essere favorito da le 
singola virth di V. S. Ill.ma. 

Non posso pin di quel che 19 sono essere obbligato a V.S. Ill.ma per li singolart 
favorit che per sua nobil mano ogni giorno vado ricevendo et perché molto piit 
eccedono le gratie al mio merito perci0, in quel ch’10 non posso 10 prego Dio che 
per me complisca in meritare V. S. Ill.ma in ogni compito et felicita alla quale 
con ognt riverenza bacio le mani. Da Venetia il 4 aprile 1620. 

D. V. S. Lil.ma 

| . Ser.re obblig.mo 


Claudio Monteverdi. 


258 MONTEVERDI’S LETTERS 


XXIV. At Mepssimo. 
I/l.mo mio Sig.re et padron Coll.mo 


Infiniti favort vado ricevendo dalla larga mano di V. §. Iil.ma ogni momento, 
cost tanto pin ognt gtorno vado anch’10 conoscendomt obligato alle nobili mantere 
di V. S. Iil.ma potesst 10 far andar dal pari Peffetto con Paffetto, che forsi saret 
pin degno de comand: di V. S. Ill.ma dt quel ch’io mt sono, ma la fortuna mi 
va tormentando con questo bel modo mentre che m1 fa degno de favori et non 
di merito. Ho ricevuto una benignissima risposta alla lettera mia dalla infinita 
bonta di Madama Ser.ma che bastava sola questa singolar gratia a farmele 
perpetuo servitore per forza, non che altro riconoscimento; ma non son cost 
poco conoscitore del vero ch’1o non sappia che la maggior parte del credito mio 
presso la gratia di §. A. 8. nasce dalla singolar protetione di V.S. Ill.ma che 
percid non men, devo restarne obligato a V. S. Ill.ma per riconoscimento di 
favore, dt quello devo a S. A. S. per riconoscimento di padronanza. Vord molto 
pit sperare per Vavenire apoggiato sopra la gratia dt S. A. S. et quella di V, 
S. Ill.ma di quello la fatte per lo passato in credere d’esserne fatto degno di 
quel poco di fondo ch’10 mi pretendo. Per gratia non per merito dalla gran mano 
del Ser.mo Sig.re Ducca dit Mantoa altretanto benigno Sig.re quanto giusto, 
et uno sperare una volta avanti mi mora poter godere di quella gratia che la 
benignita del Serentssimo Sig.r Ducca Vincenzo che sia in gloria mi fece vir- 
tuosa risolutione é& stata quella del Ser.mo Sig.r Ducca che ha fatto in lasciar 
che l Arianna et parimente quell’altra compositione del Sig.r Zeferino, non 
siano poste in sena in cost poco tempo perché realmente il presto é nemico troppo 
a tali ationt essendo che 11 senso dell’udito e troppo comune et troppo delicato, 
tanto pin al sindicato dove habbi da entrare le presenze de Gran Prencipi pari 
suot et con molta prudenza Madama Ser.ma ha terminato nel balletto perché 
basta la presenza di gran soggetto a dar 11 bisogno a simil feste; ma ne Valtre 
non va cosi. Che puot habbi datto occastone al Sig.r Zazzarini che anch’ egh 
5t possa mostrare servitore di merito de la gratia di §. A. S. ba tutti li requesiti 
che ella mi scrive non tanto, ma la dolce et virtuosa emulatione dara occasione 
maggtore di far altra cosa ali altri per metterst in gratia che senza la cogni- 
tione de la via non si pud arrivare a porto determinato, Paffetto perd di V. S. 
Ill.ma che ella mi va mostrando per tutte le vie Passicuro che m1 va infinitamente 
pi stringendo nel nodo de la servitit. | 

S’io sono anco ardito in accettar la gratia tanto a me bisognevole al pre- 
sente per servitio de filioli pin che per me; che ella per sua spontanea volonta 
mi offerisce in questa gentilissima sua lettera, qual’ é che mio suocero st lasst 
vedere da Sua Sig.ria Ill. che procurerd che li sia pagato quel mio bollettino 
che tiene egli in mano al presente, incolp1 11 mio molto bisogno et la sua gentil 
natura, che Puno ma fatto ardito et Valtro spinto, et non Pardir mio proprio 
perché non sapevo pur troppo a@haverla discomodata. Vera dunque mio suocero 
da lei et li perdoni il discomodo. Et con questo facendo a V. S. Ill. humiliss.ma 


MONTEVERDI’S LETTERS 259 


riverenza da Dio prego con il pin vivo del coreaV. §. Ill.ma ogni vero contento. 


Da Venetia il 19 maggio 1620. 


D. V. S. LIll.ma 
Ser.re obblig.mo 


Claudio Monteverdi. 


XXV. Av Mepesimo. 
Ill.mo mio Sig.re et padron Coll.mo 


Hora che sono passate le mie fatiche di Santo Marco ne mi verranno a ri- 
trovare per sino ad ogni Santi trovandomi in tale poca di liberta non tanto mai 
spinto anco dal bisogno accidentalmente natom1 che é statto, che Francesco mio 
filiolo di eta di venti anni credendo tra un anno o poco pint vederlo dottorato 
in legge inaspettatamente ha fatto risolutione in Bologna andar frate de la 
Religione de padri Carmelitant Scalzi riformati; per lo che tra 11 viaggio nel 
andar a Milano et ne i abbiti da frate mi ha fatto un debito adosso di pin 
dt cinquanta scudt havevo percid et per Poccasione et per tl bisogno fatto riso- 
lutione dit venirmene a Mantova per veder @havere da la bonta di S.A.S. que 
pocht denari ch’10 mt avanzo; ma avanti la mia venuta gid otto giornt sono 
ne diedt prima parte a mio suocero, et egli havendomt scritto in questa presente 
posta essere stato da V. S. Ill.ma; et lut haverli accennato che senza che mi 
scomodasst, et che venisst a patire per il viaggio in questi cald1, che havendolt 
hora di comissione di S. A. S. da pagare la musica che m’haverebbe honorato 
dt far opera che il mio bollettino anco fosse pagato, et credendo pin tosto che il 
detto mio messere c10 havesse detto perché sa che qui meco st trova Massimighiano 
verso tl quale temo che poco affetto li porta perché é putto che sa 11 suo che dubi- 
tando non lo conducesse meco havesse d’haver disgusto; sferzato dal bisogno 
detto dt sopra, non ho potuto di meno che non scriver la presente a VS, Ill.ma 
supplicandola che mi honort di accennarmi se senza che mi venght a Mantova 
potro essere agratiato di tali denart, in questo presente mese, che se sara cosi, 
m1 fermerd, se non anche per non perdere la comodtta del poter venire, pigherer 
la congiuntura del mio tempo libero et veneret a supplicare S.A.S. cost sforzato 
in verita dal mio molto bisogno sperando che dovendolt 10 adoperare per atutar 
quel putto che e andatto a cosi santa vita, et questo altro allt studi ambiduts 
sudditi suot, non mt mancherebbe di cosi giusta gratia. So d’essere et essere 
maggiormente. stato importuno a VS. Ill.ma per li tanti travagh che gh ho 
datto, ma assicuro V.S. Ill. che arrossito per li ditti, mt sara levato Pardire 
d’importunarla, ancora che sia sticurissimo che la sua gentilezza mat manche- 
rebbe del suo naturale verso ad ogni uno specialmente verso me che mi ha datto 
VS. Ill. tanti segni d’essere sicuro della honorata gratia sua; nella quale prego 
Dio che sempre mi mantenghi et che insteme feliciti et conservi la persona dt 


260 MONTEVERDI’S LETTERS 


VS. Ill.ma alla quale per fine faccio humil riverenza et bacio le mani. Da 
Venetia li 11 luglio 1620. 
D. V. S. Ill.ma 
Ser.re Devot.mo et oblig.mo 


Claudio Monteverdi. 


XXVI. Av MeEpesimo. 
Ili.mo mio Sig.re et Padron Coll.mo 


Se V. S. Ill.ma non sara quella che mt honort de suot bramati comandt, con- 
fesserami a let (cosi sara forza) sempre avvinto d'un nodo indtssolubtle dt 
injinito obligo per cost segnalata et a me importante gratia; che ella mt ha 
ottenuto appresso alla gratia dt 8. A. 8. Ma come potret anco all hora adiman- 
darmt slegato se li comandit di V.S. Ill.ma m’apporterebbero et favori et 
bonort ; Iscusa V. 8. Ill.ma questo povero animo mio che pir vorrebbe di quello 
che non pud; non li sara pero distolto mat d’alcuno la conoscenza d esserle servi- 
tore di vero core; Se havessi saputo d’incontrar nel gusto di §. A. S. in qualche 
piccola parte et pariments in quello di VS. Ill.ma creddamt al certo che di gia 
15 giornt fa saret venuto volando a Mantova. Ma la mia buona fortuna cosi 
non mi ha voluto acompagnare, mi resterd non tanto perché Poccasione (come 
ella ben mi accenna) non sarebbe pin in pronto, quanto che mt saggionge il 
bisogno di servire a questa Seren.ma Repubblica dimani che sara alli 20 del 
presente alla chiesa del Salvatore, giorno celebrato da questa Ser.ma Repubblica 
in memoria d’una gratia ricevuta dalla man di Dio, che fu la liberatione de la 
citta da una crudel peste; Ho tocco a mio suocero del favore particolare che 
V. 8S. Ill.ma mi ha fatto presso 8. A. 8. non so se egli petra restare che non st 
lassi vedere da let, per essere indrizzato di quanto doveva fare atid si possa 
godere de la bramata gratia; iscussando 11 mto bisogno, et 11 desiderio grande 
che ha il povero homo tn farm servitio, se forst in tal lasiarst vedere a V. S. 
Iil.ma aportasse qualche mira che del tutto maggiormente ne terrd infinito obbligo 
alla cortese natura di V. S. Ill.ma alla quale con ogni affetto di core pregole da 
Dio il colmo d’ogni felicita mentre che li faccio riverenza et li bacio le mant. 
Da Venetia 11 19 luglio 1620. 

DV. So LH: 

Serv.re obblig.mo 


Claudio Monteverdi, 


MONTEVERDI’S LETTERS 261 


X XVII. At Mepesimo. 
Ill. mio Sig.re et Padron Coll.mo 


Piaccia a Dio ch’io mt sia nato servitore di quel merito in servirla, ch’ella 
é nata a me padrone in sempre favorirmi et honorarmi, quando ch’io mi penso 
haver pur troppo ricevuto da la cortesissima sua mano, in haver ricevuto la 
comissione tanto da me desiderata di que pochi denart per potermene servire 
nel bisogno urgente de miet filioli che non manca con la pressa del tempo darmene 
ogni diligente aricordo, ecco che mi agionge V. S. Ill.ma novo avviso di novo 
‘ favore, che é statto che queste deboli notte mie ch’anno servito ben con grand’ animo- 
st ma con debole forze, alla bellissima egloga di V.S. Ill.ma di bel novo siano 
statte et da 8S. A. 8. et da V. S. Ill.ma doppiamente honorate et lodate, giudica 
let che obbligo deve esser questo mio, verso V. S. Ill.ma. Ma se 1n altro non potro, 
cercherd di pregar Dio con ognt affetto che entri in mio soccorso, a prestar ogni 
gratia et felicita alla honoratissima et gentilissima persona dt V. S. Ill.ma 
alla quale faccto humilissima riverenZa. Ho scritto al Sig. Lacumo mto suocero, 
che st lassi vedere da V. S. Ill.ma st come ella me ne ha comesso, et se per accaso 
V. S. L[ll.ma restasse da la sua solecitudine forse qualche poco noiata, incolpa 
et la gentilezza di let che cosi ha comandato et 11 mio molto bisogno che cosi 
mt sprona. Da Venetia i 24 luglio 1620. 

D. V. S. Ill.ma 


Ser.re obblig.mo 


Claudio Monteverdi. 


XXVIII. At Mepesimo. 
Ill.mo mio Sig.re et padron Coll.mo 


Desiderano li Sig.rt Milanesi oltre modo haver il Sig.r D. Francesco Dognazzi 
per honorar maggiormente la loro festa di Santo Carlo che sara alli 4 del ven- 
turo, ma pin di loro 10, potché m1 hanno pregato ad haver tal carica, et deside- 
random far bonore per questo oltre la preghiera di quests Signort agiongo la 
mia con ogni caldo effetto, supplicando V. S. Ill.ma se acadesse Poccastone presso 
la bona mente di S. A. 8S. di qualche preghiera per lasciarlo ventre, vogliami 
anco in questo obligare (se pin posso essere obligato alli infinits favori riceuti 
da V.S. Ill.ma) di facilitare tal strada atid esso Sig. D. Francesco possa venire 
a Venetia per otto giornt et non per pin qual allogiara in casa mia. Caro Sig.re 
Lil.mo mt perdont di cotanto incomodo, che se non fosse negotio che mi. premesse 
certamente che non ardiret tanto perché s’10 facesst 11 fascio di tutti li incomodt 
datti a V, S. Ill.ma et che bene li mirasst abrugeret di vergogna, ma il bisogno 
non mi fa veder al presente tanto, solamente che so di certo d’essere a V. S. Lil. 


262 MONTEVERDI’S LETTERS 


servitore perpetuamente obligato qual con ogni riverenza bacia le mani a V. 
S. Ill.ma et da Dio pregole ogni felicita. Da Venetia 11 21 ottobre. 
DE SL. 
Sigr. Ill. Conte Alessandro Striggto. 
Ser.re oblig.mo 


Claudio Monteverdi. 


[Anno 1621] 
XXIX. Atta Ducuessa v1 ManrTova. 


Ser.ma Sig.ra et padrona Coll.ma 


Trovomi Madama Ser.ma un filiolo di eta da 16 anni e mezzo suddito et hu- 
milissima servo di V. A. S. quale hora é uscito dal seminario dt Bologna, per 
haver in questo finito il corso del humanita et Ret.ca. Vorret che camminasse 
alle altre scienze per dottorarst in medicina; Egh e statto sotto sempre ad ubt- 
dienza dt precettort che Phanno mantenuto, et nel timor di Dio, et nella buona 
continuatione de studi; pensando io alla sua vivezza et alla hiberta licentiosa 
de scclart; per mezzo de la quale cadono molte volte in male compagnie che poi 
li distolgono dal dritto camino con molto dolore de padri et perdita grandissima 
de detts filioli, per rimediare a questo gran danno che potrebbe nascere, ho pen- 
sato che un loco nel Collegio del Sig. Ill.mo Cardinal Mont Alto che ha in Bo- 
logna sarebbe ogni quiete mia et salute del filiolo ma senza una principal mano 
in aiuto mio in cosi gran bisogno, non sarebbe possibile che potesst ottenere cosi 
segnalata gratia, percid sapendo quanto V.A.S. 51] per natura Prencipessa piena 
dinfinita humanita verso ogni uno, in particolare a suot riverents sudditi come 
@ questo povero filiolo et servitore benché minim1 come son 10; Ho per questo 
preso ardire di supplicare V. A. 8. con il pin vivo del core come faccto et con 
ognt pin bumil riverenza ch’19 posso atid st degni scrivere in raccomandatione 
d’un tal loco per detto filiolo in detto collegio dit Bologna al detto Sig.r Ill.mo 
Cardinal Mont’ Alto per poter ricevere cosi alta gratia, et se di presente tutt 
li locht st trovassero pient, 11 primo vacante anche sarebbe a tempo. Supplico 
PAS. Vostra a perdonarmi 11 troppo ardire, mentre che con ogni pin profonda 
riverenza me Vinchino, et li prego con tutto Paffetto del animo mio ogni pit 
compita felicita. Da Venetia li 7 agosto 1621. 

D. V. A. Ser.me : 

Humiliss.mo et obblig.mo Ser.re 


Claudio Monteverdi. 


MONTEVERDI’S LETTERS 263 


XXX. At Secretario Ducate Ercote MaricLiAnt. 
Molto Ill. mio Sig.re et padron Osser.mo 


Invio a V.S. per lo presente ordinario parte del terzo intermedio in musica 
11 rimanente spererd se piacerd a Dio mandarlo per lo venturo, li daffari hauti 
nella passata et parte de la presente settimana mi hanno tenuto il potere ma 
non gia i volere prontissimo chio tengo in servirla del che la prego a farmi degno 
di scusa. Ho hauto haviso da Bolegna come di gia il Sig.r Ill.mo Cardinal 
Mont’ Alto ha riceuto con particolar gusto la preghiera di Madama Seren.ma 
et mi vien scritto che tengono di fermo che resterd favorito de la gratia, et la 
risposta st crede sard o per il presente a futuro ordinario senz altro; bauta 
prego V. 8. farmi favore de la bona dispositione dt esso Sig. Ill.mo atid mt possa 
vivere consolato ; Ho datto la nova che ho riceuto al putto, et ne ha sentito tanto 
contento, ancora st trova in stato di doverst poco ralegrare, perché gid otto giornt 
ja st pose in letto con grandtssima febre, et set giornt fa Pincominciorno a saltar 
fuort le nuvole, et hora st trova nel colmo, tuttavia pero st spera ognt bona rius- 
cita in breve se piacera a Dio, perché sono venute alla superfitie molto bene, 
st che di dentro si sente a star bene et spero che li habbino a servire per una 
bonissima purga; Altro non mi resta che baciar le mani a V. 8S. con il mag- 
gior affetto del core, et pregard da Dio ogni felicita, da Venetia lt 10 Settem.re 
1621. 

D. V. S. Ill.ma 


Ser.re obblig.mo 


Claudio Monteverdi. 


XXXII. Atta Ducuessa pi ManrTova. 


Seren.ma Sig.ra et padrona Coll.ma 


Per la passata inviai al Sig.r Marigliani la licenza in musica de li intermedt 
che V. A. Ser.ma si degnd comandarmt, et chiest nova occasione per dovermt 
affaticare, mi rispose Sua Sig.ria non voler altro al presente. Vengo pertanto 
con questa mia a piedi di V. A. Ser.ma a ringratiarla con il pin interno del 
core, dell’ honore riceuto dal detto comando di V.A. Ser.ma offerendomeli per 
humilissimo Ser.re, se occorresse concertarli tali detti intermedi et nella va- 
riatione de ustrimenti, sinfonie, et proprietate de voct, ne mancheret insieme 
offerire alla infinita humanita di V.A.S. una messa solenne in musica quando 
che cid gustasse di agradire, et quando ch’e? A. 8. V. altro non comandi la 
supplico con ogni pin humil riverenza ch’io so et posso dignarst di tenermi nel 
numero de pit bumili si, ma ben devoti et riverenti Serv.ri di V. A. S., alla 
quale con ogni pi profonda riverenza ch’to so et posso bumilmente me Vinchino, 


264 MONTEVERDI’S LETTERS 


et da Dio con il pid vivo del core pregoli ogni piu compita felicita. Da Venetia 
li 27 novembre 1621. 
D. V. A. Ser.ma 


Humittss.mo et oblig.mo. Ser.re 


Claudio Monteverdi. 


[Anno 1622] 
XXXII. Atta MepesimMa. 


Ser.ma Sig.ra et padrona Coll.ma 


Il padre Reverendo frate Cesare mio cognato venuto da Alessandria di Egitto, 
havendomi donato un simtottino qual da molti gentil’ homini é stato lodato per 
la non cosi usata vista del pelo; ho per questo preso ardire di venire a piedt 
del A. V. 8S. con ogni pin riverente affetto supplicandola si vogli degnare di 
agradirlo ; so che doverebbe assat essere pin bello, per sodisfare maggiormente al 
nobilissimo gusto del’ A. V. Ser.ma, ma sperando nella infinita humanita sua, 
spererd insieme che mi honorera di agradire in sua vece il riverente animo mio, 
gual con ogni maggior caldezza @affetto prega Dio che sempre feliciti PA. 
V.S., et con ogni riverenza maggtore se Pinchina. Da Venetia hi 15 aprile 1622. 


D. V. A. Ser.ma. 
Humuiltss.mo et oblig.mo Ser.re 


Claudio Monteverdi. 





XX XIII. At Conte ALESSANDRO STRIGGIO. 
Iil.mo mio Sig.re et padron Coll.mo 


Il Sig.r Ill.mo Giustiniano Gentil? homo di molta autorita in questa Serents- 
sima Republica et molto mio Signore tre giornt fa mt venne aposta a ritrovare 
a casa in compagnia di moltt altri Sig.t [ll.mi a nararmt come che non pochi 
giornt fa fece scrivere et scrisse al Sig.re Lelio Andreini comico atid st dispo- 
nesse con la Sig.ra Florinda insieme et tutta la compagnia sua a venire a 
Venetia a recitar comedie nel suo loco publico, intendendo perd che il Serenis- 
simo non se ne volesse prevalere che 1n tal caso s’intendeva nulla voler trat- 
tare; hebbe per riposta che era prontissimo tanto pin che il sig. Ducca di gia 
si era lassiato intendere non se ne voler prevalere, mancava solamente che 
Arlechino dicesse dt st, senza il quale per non perdere di riputatione dovendo 
recitare in loco, ove recitara anco Fritelino (perd in altra stanza) non con- 
sentiva venire cosi; questo Sig. Ill.mo fece scrivere a detto Arlechino et hebbe 
per risposta che quando S. A. S. non lo havesse adoperato et che insieme hi havesse 


eae 


MONTEVERDI’S LETTERS 265 


concesso bona licenza che sarebbe venuto intendendo perd ancora lui quando 
pero li fosse venuto un tal dottore Gratiano che hora si trova in Savoia ; Et mentre 
questo Sig.re va vedendo con 11 negotiamento di mettere il tutto a segno, Ecco 
W Sig.r Lelio che lt scrwve una lettera che in quanto alla persona sua é prontis- 
sima a servirla, et che se li condona servitore humilissimo ma che fa sapere perd 
a Sua Sig.ria Ill.ma come che la Sig.ra Florinda non vol recitare, et che egli 
ha fatto pensiero di farst tstrione solo in altre compagnie ancora per duot 
anni; et non pin capo dt compagnia vedendo cotantt sinistri acadere et distur- 
bi nel voler reggere compagnia; per la qual lettera havendo concluso questo 
Sig.r [ll.mo 11 detto negotio essere quast a ternas; sapendo quanto sia io servit.re 
bumilissmo a quella Sereniss. Altezza et a V. §. Ill.ma mi ba caldamente pre- 
gato con insieme quelli altri Sig.rt che erano in sua compagnia, che voglia con 
una mia (ognt volta perd che S. A. 8. non sit per prevalersene) pregar instante- 
mente V. S. Ill.ma a disporre questo Sig. Lelio atid favorischt questo Signore, 
il quale Sig.r Lelio se si volesse tscusare sopra al mancamento de le parti di sua 
compagnia, questo Sig.r li offerisse et Gratiano et Zannt, et Dottore, et ognt 
altra parte che potesse mancare. Vengo pertanto a supplicar V. 8. Ill.ma anzt 
per dir meglio vengo a pregare la infinita gentilezza di V. §. Ill.ma che mi 
honort di pregar V.S. Iil.ma si vogli degnare passar quest ufficio di preghtera 
con 11 detto Sig.r Lelio atid st disponght venire a favorire questo Sig.r Ill.mo 
che lo ritrovara pieno dt cortesie verso la persona di esso Sig.r Lelio, et con 
donativt et pagamento di viaggio et altro, et che ment anco la Sig.ra Florinda 
et altri che a lui parera et non volendo metie in consideratione ad esso signor 
Lelio che per le sue speranze dt gia con lettere dattele sara restato et di cercar 
altra compagnia et che 11 suo teatro restera per lui di non far comedia disgusto 
qual eglt st potra immaginare. L’autorita di V.S.Ill.ma so sara quella che acomo- 
dera 1 tutto in bene, et 10 ne resterd per sempre obbligatissimo a V. 8. Ill.ma 
di cosi bramato favore qual so appreso di questi Sig.rt Ill.mi mt fara conoscere 
quanto ella tien cara a presso.la sua gratia la mia serviti. Non guardi la sup- 
plico al mio debole merito, ma mi scusi let nella sua gentilexzza dignandost 
di far adimandar esso Sig.r Lelio. disponendolo con la dolcezza del suo favore, 
et qui facendole humil riverenza da Dio l prego con tutto Paffetto ognt piu 
bramata feltcita. Da Venetia li 21 ottobre 1622. 
D.V.S. Lil.ma 
Ser.re Devotissimo et obblig.mo 


Claudio Monteverdi. 


XXXIV. At Mepssrmo. 
Ill.mo mio Sig.re et padron Coll.mo 


L’Iil.mo Signor Giustiniant mio Sig.re e venuto a posta a ritrovarmi in 
camera proppria questa mattina che ne habiamo 3 del presente a nararmi una 


266 MONTEVERDI’S LETTERS 


certa gelosietta che tiene per causa di dubitatione che Fritellino non si sij affati- 
cato con qualche sue arti per restar solo a Venetia (se ben poco piaciuto) atid 
s'intorbidi la venuta, aspettata perd molto da tutta la citta, de li Comict di Man- 
toa, essendo che tarda; et maggiormente havendo inteso, 11 Dottore Gratiano 
essere statto di gusto tale a §. A.S, che Vha riconosciuto di un donativo di cento 
scudt spesa in vita et altro sicuro tratenimento che perd incontrandos1 tal con- 
giontura di gusto non vorebbe che Parte del detto Fritellino potesse haver fatto 
incontro. Dal altro canto havendo di gia visto la lettera di V. S. Iil.ma che si 
degno mandarmi in risposta che assicurava la venuta de dettt Comict con bona 
sodisfatione del Ser.mo et di presente non havendo visto lettere dal coriere por- 
tate di niun de dettt comici, che perd fa sperare che venghino, s1 é per tanto 
datto a credere dt ricevere il bramato favore. Merita certamente questo Sig.r 
Iil.mo che §. A. S. in cid lo consoli, potché m1 credda V. §. Ill.ma che non ha 
mancato di adoperarst con ognt diligenza et affetto utid anco S. A. S. restasse 
gustata nel haver le parti mandate per empire 11 bisogno de la compagnia, non 
solamente s’adoperd in far che venissero quelle prime parti, et maggiormente 
in far risolvere Franceschina, ma tntorno al dottore quale non volendo dire di 
st per la via di dolct et instante preghiere, st rosolse per contrario muttar le 
preghiere in minazze per lo che bisogno che il detto dottore montasse seco in 
gondola et lo condusse ale baffeterie con penstero di farvelo condure per forza 
ma 11 dottore havendo giurato a Sua Sig.ria Ill.ma che sarebbe venuto s1 contento 
a farlo compagnare solamente per questo esserst Sua Sig.ria Ill.ma con cost caldo 
affetto adoperata et per la promessa che V.S. Ill.ma li fece nella sua promessa in 
risposta alla mia et per non haver visto lettere in contrari nel presente dispaccio 
vivt sua Sig.re Ill.ma con bonissima speranza, tuttavia perché troppo desidera 
questo favore mi ha di novo comandato sua Sig.rta Iil.ma che tornt a pregare V.S. 
Iil.ma atid in evento di bisogno lo voglt favorire et quando anco (come creddo) 
havessero da wenire senza altro tncomodo di V.S. Ill.ma prega perd a volerlo far 
restar consolato con aviso novo de la certa venuta, la quale anco sarebbe a tempo 
se fra diect 0 quindict giornt fosse come spera. Mi ha soggtonto esso Sig.r Ill.mo che 
se potesse scrivere a V. §. Ill.ma potché sa bene che questi signori non ponno 
scrivere a Mintstri dt Prencipt senza licenza, che di gia haverebbe mostrato 
Pobligo a V. S. Ill.ma che lh deve. Et qui dt bel novo ripregando la gentilezza 
di V. §. Ill.ma al favore bramato essendo il Sig.r Ill.mo Gtustiniant molto 
mio Sig.re a Lei le resto et resterd per sempre obbligatiss.mo Ser.re, Et qui fa- 
cendo riverenza aV.8§. Ill. da Dio N. S. le prego 11 colmo @ognit maggtor felicita. 
Da Venetia li 3 dicembre 1622. 


D. V.S. Iil.ma 
Ser.re Devotiss.mo et oblig.mo 


Claudio Monteverdi. 


MONTEVERDI’S LETTERS 267 


XXXV. At Mepesimo. 
Lil.mo mio Sig.re et padron Coll.mo 


Riceuto che ho dal presente coriere due di V. S. Ill.ma presenti vi era che 
attendeva quanto ella st degnava scrivere 11 fattore del Sig.r Ill.mo Giustiniant, 
le quali subbito lette et datte al detto fattore da portarle a vedere al detto Sig. 
Ill.mo mi é ritornato alla camera con le dette lettere, et mi ha imposto ch’io 
scriva aV. 8. Ill.ma a nome del Sig.r Ill.mo Giustiniant, che st conosce a lei 
cotanto obligato come se propriamente havesse ricevuto il favore in effetto, et 
lo supplica a comandarle se in qualche cosa lo conosce bono in servire et con la 
vita et con la robba a V. S. Ill.ma, Quanto di novo ricerca dalla gentilezza 
di V. 8. Ill.ma e che havendo inteso che a Mantova si ritrova una compagnia 
dt comict spagnoli, che se con tal bella congiuntura con quel destro modo che sa- 
pera usare V. 8. Ill.ma st potesse havere lo intento gustandosi forst S. A. S. de 
li detti spagnoli pin che de li Italiani sarebbe sempre a tempo 11 favore, deside- 
rando pero che 11 tutto stj fatto con 11 gusto di V. S. Ill.ma altretanto et maggior- 
mente dt pin resto a V. §. Ill.ma obligato poiché si ¢ degnata mostrar in carta 
che non sdegna amare la persona mia anchor che debole a questo mondo per lo 
che sarod sempre tenuto pregar Dito che feliciti et conservi la persona di V. S. 
Ill.ma et me che facct degno di meriti de comandi di V. S. Ill.ma atid con li 
effetti possa mostrarmi degno servitore di Let. 

Sig.r Ill. gia un mese et mezzo fa passd a miglior vita un organista di Santo 
Marco et poco dopo la detta morte scrissemi 11 Sig.r Ottavio Bergnant lamen- 
tandost meco che non Phavesst havisato di cotal vacanza per poter adimandar 
il loco. Li rispost Sig.r Bergnant caro amo V. S. con ogni affetto, ma essere 
V.S. servitore di quel prencipe tanto mio padrone et Sig.re mat haveret pensato 
non che tentato di servirle tal cosa, che sarebbe statto un desiderar che ella st 
partisse da questa servitt la quale con tanto riverisco et amo. M1 fara gratia 
dunque V. S. trattarmi d’ogni altra cosa fuorche di questo. Il negotto cosi st 
tacque, ma quando mt creddo che nulla sia, ecco non bert altro vengo adimandato 
in procuratia da Sig.r Procuratort ridotti cost gionto di lungo fanno leggere 
una lettera del Sig.r Bergnanit hauta non so donde che procura dhaver detto 
loco che tuttavia sta vacando la quale finita mi adimando se tal soggetto e bono 
li rispondo di si, mi soggiongono che li scriva una lettera da parte de le loro 
Ece.ze che li fara a piacere lassiarst udire, che Passicurano che se sara tale 
quale st offerisce che non faranno torto alla sua virtu, ct sono perd anco cinque 
altrt che chieggono detto loco st che sara necessario il concorso. Lo pensando fra 
me che tal lettera senza prima darne parte a V.S, Ill.ma ati ne dia parte a sua 
A.S. ancora potrebbe molto pregiudicarmi a la gratia di S. A. S. la quale stimo 
et stimerd sinch’io vivo per infiniti rispetti ; per tal fondamento ho narato il 
negotio a V. §. Ill.ma supplicandola ad accenarmt per lo venturo ordinario 
quella potrd fare con bona gratia di S. A. S., stando che eglt accenna nella sua 
lettera che con bona gratia di S. A. potrebbe venire a servire in Santo Marco, 
Pho voluto poner in mano a V.S. Lll.ma perché so che riuscira il tutto secre- 


268 MONTEVERDI’S LETTERS 


tamente, et senza mio disgusto. Et gut facendo a V.S. Ill. humil riverenza da 
Dio N.S. li prego tl felice bon capo d’anno. Da Venetia li 31 dicembre 1622. 
D. V. S. Ill.ma 


Ser.re oblig.mo 


Claudio Monteverdi. 


[Anno 1623] 
XXXVI. At Mepesrmo. 


Lll.mo mio Sig.re et padron Coll.mo 


Il Serentssimo Sig.r Ducca mio Singolar Sig.re si é degnato di farmt intendere 
per bocca del Sig.r Bergamaschino qual é¢ hora ritornato da Mantoa per Venetia 
che haverebbe gusto che per Pordinario venturo mt trovasst in Mantova con 
condur insteme meco duot soprant et duot chitaronistt. Vengo con questa mia 
a supplicarla st voglt degnare di far sapere a S. A. S. che realmente m1 trovo 
da una dissesa che per causa di purga fect a questo principio dt ottobre prossimo 
passato collatami dalla testa per le spalle et tutta la vita cost mal trattato 
che é necessario che mi facct vestire non potendo io per dolore de mant braccta 
et predt quasi atutarmi, é vero che pare che dij segno dt principio di giovamento, 
nulladimeno perd mi trovo pit su la parte del male che del bene oltre dt cto mt 
ct é giunto da tre giorni in qua anco una rilassatione di corpo che non mi lascia 
quetare, con tutto cid mettendo insieme il disgusto dell animo ch’to sento del 
non poter venire per causa del mal detto, pit tosto mi offende questo non potere 
che 11 mal stesso; son perd tanto desideroso che se niente mi da tempo per 1 futuro 
procaccio 11 male vo credendo d’essere tanto ardito atutato dal desiderio di 
servire al A. S. sua, che spero mi mettero in viaggio ma quando che non venghi 
mi credda V. §. Ill.ma che saro astretto dal male a restare contro ogni mia volia 
et percid ne supplico V. S. Ill.ma per Pamor di Dio, quando nasesse 11 caso come 
vo piu tosto credendo di si che di no porgere questa vera et real scusa al A.S. 
sua; In quanto al condur soprani mi credda V. 8S. Ill.ma che non ct é cosa al 
proposito, ne meno cht sont di chitarone sopra alla parte se non ordinariamente, 
che pero secondo il parer mio non porterebbe la spesa a condur di qui gente ord1- 
naria. Istrumenti da fiato ben si ve ne sono et boni et se de questi V. §. Ill.ma 
m1 acennera qualche cosa spereret mandarli cosa honestamente bona et circa 
al bisogno de chitaront per cosa ordinaria creddo che VA. S. sua potrebbe restare 
sodisfatta a Verona per conseguenza con manco spesa ancora; caro padrone 
V.S. Ill.ma mi scusi di cotanto discomodo, et mi perdont, li vivo et vivero per- 
petuamente servitore obblig.mo con pregar Dio che sempre feliciti et conservt 
la persona di V. S, Ill. alla quale bacio con ogni affetto le mamt. Da Venetia 
10 febraro 1623. 

D. V. 8S. Lil.ma 


Ser.re obblig.mo 
Claudio Monteverdi. 


es ee 


MONTEVERDI’S LETTERS | 269 


[Anno 1624] 
XX XVII. At Duca v1 Manrova. 


Ser.mo mio Sig.re Singolar et padron Coll.mo 


Vengo a rendere a V. A. S. quelle maggior gratie che mai riverentemente 
posso con tutto Panimo et tutto 11 core, del particolar honore che si é degnata 
farm1, che e statto Phavermt honorato de comandt suoi, quali sempre stimeré 
mandatemt da la man di Dio per mio maggtor honore et fortuna che posst rice- 
vere. Al presente Sere.mo Sig.re qui in Venetia non st trova sogetto al proposito, 
mt corre perd questo acidente per mano di un padre del ordine di Santo Stefano 
dt Venetia cantore di Santo Marco che diect giornt fa mt disse havere un fra- 
tello al servitio del Sig.r Ill.mo Arcivescovo dt Salisburgh di eta giovanile, cas- 
trato, di assat bella voce, et comoda gorgia, et trillo, ma per non est essere a 
quel servitio chi lo possa miglhiorare nella virtute haverebbero a piacere che 
venesse a stantiare in Venetia quando lt fosse occasione di qualche utile; li 
rispost che lo facesse venire che non haveret mancato di giovarle apresso a Pa- 
dront et anche conqualche avertimenti in questa mane apunto avanti ricevesst 
tl Comando di V. A. S. tn capella mi ha detto haver scritto, che se ne venga. 
Hora ch’10 so quanto debbo adoperarmi per gusto di V. A. S. non mancherd 
diligentemente informarmene meglio, et se sara a proposito non manchero sole- 
citar il negotio atid possa mostrar con li effetti oltre il prontissimo animo mio 
quanto bramo d’esser servitore all Altezza Vostra Serentss.ma ne firmandomt 
in questo solo, non manchero di investigar altrove altra occasione la quale se mi 
st rapresentera subbito ne dard parte a V. A. 8. Creddo che il Sig.r Campagnolo 
come quello che é statto in quelle bande ne poterebbe forsi dar conto al? A.V.S.3 
alli giornt passati intest che in Ferrara ve ne era uno che serviva a que’ Sig.rt 
nel Spirito Santo assat di bella voce et boni garbi tl quale daseva non ordinaria 
sodisfatione. Il Sere.mo Sig.r Prencipe dt Modona cominciandos: a dilettar 
di musica come fa, et questo Sig.re non manca dt haverne ma con faticare trova 
per tal fondamento. Non do tutta la credenza a quelli che mt hanno detto dt 
questo dit Ferrara, non ho pero voluto restare dt acenarne a V. A. S. atid a Dio 
piacesse potesse essere servita come bramo, et qui faciendo a V. A. S. humilis- 
sima et profonda riverenza supplicandola con ogni instanza d’affetto a conser- 
varmi in quella parte di gratia che sol donare a pit minimt s1 ma a piu vert et 
reali servitori del’? A. V.S. alla quale pregole da Dio con il pik vivo del core 
il colmo d’ogni maggior felicita. Da Venetia li 2 marzo 1624. 

Daf oS. Lima 


Humiltssimo et oblig.mo Ser.re 


Claudio Monteverdi. 


270 MONTEVERDI’S LETTERS 


| [Anno 1625] 
XXXVIII. At SeGrReTaRiIo DUCALE E.RcoLE MARIGLIANI. 


Iil.mo mio Sig.re et padron Coll.mo 


Non potet ringratiar per la passata la infinita bonta di V. S. Ill.ma come 
era dt mio debtto, poiché oltre il mio merito si era degnata assicurarmi dela 
sua gratia nel accidente di uno certo mio disturbo che mi trovo in Mantova 
per certa lite non voluta da me ne pensata; ma 11 molto daffare hauto et che ho 
tuttavia in servire et in chiesa et alla camera quest Altezza dt Pollonia mt 
ha levato Phaver potuto pagar in questa picciola parte almeno il molto debito 
che ho et haverd per sempre a V.S. Ill.ma prego a perdonarmi, sicome la prego 
ancora a farmt gratia ch’io possa per lo venturo ordinario informarla del detto | 
mio negotio per supplicarla vedute le mie ragiont che almen s1 quieti il negotio 
senza mio danno havendo hauto la parte tutto che voleva da me. Et con tal 
fine, facendo riverenza humilissima a V. 8S. Ill.ma da Dio N. S. i prego ogni 
conforto et bene. Da Venetia lt 1§ marzo 1625. 

D.V. 8S. Lil.ma 

Servitor Obblig.mo 


Claudio Monteverdi. 


XXXIX. At Mepesimo. 
Molto Ill.re mio Sig.re et padron Osser.mo 


Ho ricevuto la gentilissima lettera di V. §. Molto Ill.ma piena d’una singolar 
affetione verso di me che nulla vaghio, nella quale mi promette degnarsi di par- 
lare con il Belli per una volta finir con dolce accordo quello che mi ha notato, 
st che mille volte mi pento haver mat lasstato princtpiare, non per altro maggior 
fondamento che per levarmi dal litigare qual mi é cost im disgusto che se havesst 
ragione non so se volesst principiare similt intricht, mat pin; Mi serisse V. S. 
Molt. Ill.re nella passata come che haveva ella parlato al Sig.r Dottore de la 
parte, et che haveva detto che 10 mt ero contentanto nullare quel Istromento di 
transaccione affatto, non so se cid, disst, ma se lo disst bisognava che fosst ube- 
riaco che altro, potché 11 Sig. Prencipe comette che in tre giornt 10 vegga 11 tutto, 
et come haveret tanto giuditio a metter in lunga lite quello che altro non bra- 
mavo che finirlo per partirmt per Venetia. D1 pik non facevo se non quello voleva 
il mio procuratore. Dunque havendomt consighiato al litigare m1 consighava al mio 
peggio et tanto pin havendomi consighato a far cosa contro di me et per conse- 
guenza o che era tgnorante verso di me o vitioso. Hor su sti la cosa come st 
voglia supplico il Sig.r Marigliano mio Signore a farms gratia dt accomodar la 
cosa con quel modo che meglio sapra operare lei che 10 dire; et mi perdoni la 


SS eee ee 


MONTEVERDI’S LETTERS Oo 


prego con le viscere del core a perdonarmi assicurandola che il tutto sara legato 
nel mio core con un nodo perpetuo di obligo. 

Mz é statto donato le presente bevande che nella detta canevetina invio a V. 
S. Molto Iil.e mi fara gratia acettar il tutto per amor mio per segno almeno 
di quel obligo che gli devo, so che la proportione al molto 11 poco non arriva, 
ma ct rimetta della sua solita gentilezza che il tutto caminerd bentssimo. 

Cerca al vaso per calcinar Poro con 11 Saturno mi ha detto il Sig.r Piscina 
et 11 Sig.r Medico de Santi, amboduvi sogetti grandi in tal arte, che st pigha 
un vaso come un orinale di terra; apure una pignatella, et st luttano bene atid 
stijno salde al foco, in fondo del uno de quali vast vi st mette piombo honesta- 
mente, piu tosto tendente al molto che al poco atid caminano assat fumt. Pot 
st pigha del filo di ferro suttile et si batte un Cechino facendolo venire alquanto 
sottile, et st fura il vaso verso la cima in quattro lochi et in mezzo v1 51 pona 
il detto cecchino apiccato da quattro parti acomodato in quadro che sta 1n arta. 
Pot sopra al detto vaso se li pone 11 suo coperchio di terra et st luta con 11 vaso 
atid stij saldo et ben turi la bocca del detto vaso, et nella cima del detto coper- 
chio st fa un buco picctiolo poi si da foco sotto al detto vaso facendo bollire il detto 
saturno, cost li fumt vanno circolando intorno al detto cechino, et lo calcinano 
in mantiera che st pud prestare il qual viene cosi sottile che e quast 1mpalpabile ; 
Si pud anche ataccare un filo solo a la cima del coperchio et nel detto filo dt rame, 
metterle il detto cechino et duot et pin secundo piaura ma pero alquanto lontant 
Puno dal altro, cosi in tal modo si calcina Toro con il saturno et non 1n altro 
meglio di questo. Il vaso sara come per esempio questo. 


& 










CG 
oS 


pe 







x \ 
Cechino 


Sea PUGS oF tat 


Loco del Saturno 





- 
- 


Quel filo che perpendicularmente nel mezzo del zechino potra star solo senza 
gli quattro fili opure potra atacarlo con li quattro fili senza quello che pende ; 
faccia uno let. 


re i ~MONTEVERDI’S LETTERS 


To pot gli notifico come saperd fare 11 mercurio del vulgo che st converta in 
aqua chiara, et se bene sard in aqua non pero perdera Vessere mercurio; et il 
suo peso perché ho provato pigliarne una goccia et lo posta sopra un cucchtaro 
di ottone et fregatolo, et é divenuto tutto tinto 1n color d’argento; de la qual 
aqua retificata spererd far qualche cosa degna essendo che solve Pargento galiar- 
demente. Et qui facendo riverenza con tutto il core a V. §. Molto Ill.r da Dio ght 
prego il colmo d’ognt maggtor felicita. Da Venetia gh 23 agosto 1625. 

D. V. S. Molto Ill.re 

Ser.re obblig.mo 


Claudio Monteverdi. 


[ANnNo 1626] 
XL. At Mepesimo. 


Molto Ill.re Ill.mo mio Sig.re et padron Osser.mo 


Ho sentito sommo a piacere del gusto che ella la hauto nel ricevere il mercurio 
vergine mandato come ella mi comise, staro su Vavertito se poterd haverne altro 
per completamente servire alla sua volunta quando perd altro gh ne facesse bi- 
sogno. Ho inteso dopo quanto m’impone cioe che opert in mantera con un tal 
Sig.r Medico per havendo lut tl modo come fa a far un certo mercurio agiacciato 
me adopererd et dimanderod diligentemente qual posst essere questo sig.r Médico 
et fard ogni opera per servire aV.S. Conosco un tal Sig.r Medico De Santi di 
pelo rosso qual st diletta molto d’investigare la pietra filosofica quando che questo 
non $17, altrt non conosco che mt possa insegnare quanto V. 8. mi comanda per 
lo venturo ordinario potro forst meglio sodisfarla che al presente percid mi havera 
per iscusato hora. Et qui facendole riverenza con tutto Vaffetto da Dio N. S. 
en prego ogni felicita. Da Venetia gli 24 febraro 1626. 

. V. 8. Molto Lil.re 
Ser.re obblig.mo 


Claudio Monteverdi. 


XLI. At Mepesimo. 
Molto Iil.re mio Sig.re et padron Oss.mo 


Sto sollecttando il mercurio da un sogetto assai inteligente per inviarlo quanto 
prima V. S, Molto Ill.re ma pero anche non me Pha potuto dare spero per 
Pordinario venturo mandarlo, ho voluto raguagliarla di questo atid sapia che 
ght comandt di V. 8. Molto Ill.re mi vivono nel core. Scrisst quattro lettere Puna 
al Seren.ma padrone et Valtra alla Seren.ma padrona, et terza al Sig. Don 





MONTEVERDI’S LETTERS 273 


Vincenzo Seren.mo et la quarta al Sig.r Ill.mo Conte Alessandro Striggio mto 
Sig.re; supplica il Signor Marigltant mio Sig.re occorendo al filiolo introdutione 
honorarlo de la sua gratia che di tal favore ne terro perpetuo obliga a V. 8. Molto 
Lll.re per sempre come di infiniti altri che faccio ; Mi scrive nelle sue hora solecitar 
glt circoli ne studi et andar ad udire Astrologia da un tal Sig.r padre Giesuitta 
scritte et similmente tendere alli consulti, seguitando continuamente 11 servire 
al Signor Ecc.mo Bertoletti, et servire parimente 11 Sig.r Conte Bruscht mio 
Sig.re. Sto aspettando insieme che mi havisa Massimighano Vhaver hauto 
tre bollettini ch’to avanzo da la Camera Ducale et che speranza terra in haver 
detti denart, cinquanta scudt de quali m1 son contentato che se ne servi per 
il suo vitto, et mi son fermato 11 cor nel corpo non consentire che ritorni a 
Venetia per fina a tanto che non habbi stabilito dt far altra vita et altro 
profitto di quello ha fatto, spero perd in Dio che mt fara honore perché so che ba 
giuditio et honore. Lt voglio sperare che quando il Seren.mo havera conosciuto 
un giorno quello che sa tl filiolo forse che non sdegnera in concederle la sua bona 
gratia qual bramo con Panima stessa che Dio lo facct degno; Et qui facendo 
riverenza al molto illustre mio Sig.r Marighant da Dio insteme gli prego con 
tutto Paffetto del core il colmo d’ogni sua compita felicita dandole nova come 
che hora son dietro a far foco sotto ad un orinale di vetro con sopra 11 suo 
capello per cavarne un non so che per far di pot un non so che piacia a Dio 
che posst allegramente pot esplicare al mio Sig.r Marigliant questo non so che. 
Da Venetia gli 28 marzo 1626, 


D. V. S. Molto Lil.re 
Ser.re obblig.mo per sempre 


Claudio Monteverdi. 


XLII. At Conte ALEssaANDRO STRIGGIO. 


Ill.mo mio Sig.re et padrone Coll.mo 


Invio a V. 8. Ill.ma la finta pazza Licort del Sig.r Strozzi come mi ba co- 
mandato nella gentil.ma di let, non fatta per anco 1n musica, non stampata, né 
mat recitata in scena, potché subtto fatta dal Autore, egli stesso di lungo me ne 
diede di propria mano la copia, che fu la presente. Se 1l detto Sig.r Giulio sapera 
che dovesse essere in gusto di §. A. Ser.ma son stcuriss.mo che con prontiss.mo 
affetto et effetto la porra in ordine, diviso in tre atti, 0 come piacera a S.A.S.ma, 
bramando egli oltre modo di vederla da me fatta in musica, godendo di vedere 
vestito con le mie deboli note gli suot honorat.mt componimenti, che veramente, 
et nella bellezza del verso, et nella inventione, 10 Vho provato in atto di 
grand.mo soggetto et prontis.mo; siché se gustasse tal inventione a V.S. Ill.ma 
non guardi nella presentanea sua dicttione, perché so di certo ridurad Pautore alla 
compita sodisfatione in pochis.mo spatio di tempo. La inventione non mi par 

T 


274 MONTEVERDI’S LETTERS 


male, née men la spiegatura; é vero che la parte di Licort per essere molto varia 
non dovra cadere in mano di donna che hor non s1 facct homo, et hor donna con 
vivi gesti et separate passiont, perché la immitatione dt tal finta paxz1a dovendo 
havere la consideratione solo che nel presente et non nel passato et nel futuro, per 
conseguenza la immutatione dovendo havere il suo appoggiamento sopra alla 
parola et non sopra al senso de la clausola, quando donque parlerd di guerra 
bisognera immitar di guerra, quando dt pace, pace, quando d1 morte, dt morte 
et va seguitando; et perché le transformation: st faranno in brevissimo spatio 
et le immitationt, chi dunque havera da dire tal princtpalis.ma parte che move 
al riso et alla compassione, sara necessario che tal donna lassi da parte ognt 
altra immttatione che la presentanea che ght sommintstrera la parola che havera 
da dire; crederd non di meno che la Sig.ra Margherita sara la excell.ma, ma 
per mostrar di pin effetto del mio interno affetto ancor che so dt certo che 
Popera sarebbe di maggtor mia fatica. Mando 11 presente Narciso opera del Sig.r 
Ottavio Rinuccini non posto in stampa, non fatto 1n musica da alcuno, né mat 
recitato in scena. Esso Sig.r quando era in vita, che hor stj 1n cielo, come glielo 
prego di core, me ne fece gratia de la copia non tanto ma di pregarmi che la 
pighiasst, amando eglt molto tal sua opera sperando ch’1o Phavesst a porre in 
musica. Holle dato pix volte assalti et Pho alquanto digesta nella mia mente, 
ma a confessar 11 veroa V. 8. Ill.ma mt riuscisse al parer mio non di quella 
forza ch’io vorrei per gli molti soprant che gli bisognerebbero, per le tante Ninfe 
impiegate, et con molti tenort per gli tanti pastort et non altro dt variatione, et 
pin con tragico et mesto. Non ho perd voluto mancare di mandarla a vedere a 
VS. Ill.ma atid gusti 11 suo fin giuditio. Né dell’uno né dell altra non bo altra 
copia che la presente che invio a V. S. Ill.ma. Letto il tutto mt fara gratia 
rimandarmi gli detti original: per potermene valere secondo 11 mio interesse alle 
occasiont, et sappia che mi sono caris.me. Et quit facendo hum.a riverenza et 
aspettando gli bramati comandt, da Dio ognt felicita gh prego. Da Venetia 
gli 7 Maggio 1627. 

Per aricordare a V. 8. Ill.ma parte alcuna di basso che fosse a proposito 
secondo it gusto di §. A. S.ma et al bisogno de le parti eccellenti che si trova 
S. A. S.ma, in particolare per li soprant che sono quelle donne, 10 non sapret torno 
a dire che aricordare. Ho pero tnteso cosi dt lontano che v1 é un non so che di 
buono in Milano nel duomo. Qui per camera non habtamo di meglio che il Ra- 
palino mantovano che ha nome D.n Facomo qual 2 prete, ma é baritono et non 
basso, del resto fa intendere la oratione, ha un pocco dt trillo et un poco di gorgia 
et canta ardito. Stard su Pavertito per aricordar di megho, et qui torno a far 
riverenza aV. S. Ill.ma., 

Di V. S. Iil.ma 

Ser.re aff.mo et hum.mo 


Claudio Monteverdi. 


MONTEVERDI’S LETTERS O75 


XLII. At Secrerario DuCALE Ercote MaricLIANI. 


Ill.mo mio Sig.re et padron Coll.mo 


Ho ricevuto la carissima et cortesissima lettera di V. S. Ill.ma con insieme 
una obligata del Sig. Alessandro Consorte de la Sig.ra Settimia, nella quale 
altro non mi tratta che sicurezza di brevita di tempo in quello vogliono fare 
que Seren.mt Prencipi ne per anco st veggono verst ne alcun principio, assi- 
curandomi dt bel novo con la sua gentilezza che a niun altro consentira che 
ubidischt nel cantare che alla persona mia la sua sig.ra Moglie, et che non mi 
stupischt che eglt habbt risposto al stg.r Sigismondo non potendo patire che Pamtico 
che egh ama s1j da alcuno ne a torto ne a ragione laurato pregandomi se cosa 
alcuna sapesst gle ne voglia dar motto et nella fine di essa lettera mi fa sapere 
che eglt non e musico dt S. A. S. et che di gratia non glt dij piv quel titolo dt 
musico dt S. A. S., 11 che non sapendolo to non é statta meraviglia ch’io habbt 
errato, et scrivendo a sua Signoria come fard per lo venturo ordinario cerchero 
di non cadere in tal errore passato; ma quello che mt ha fatto errare e statto 
il vedere le formate parole nella sua lettera; se niuno (fuori che la persona 
dt V. S. ha da pretendere la carica dt talt mustche la deve pretendere 10 pin 
dt niun altro st perché non cedo in qual st vogha cosa dell arte alli detti (che 
m1 scrive) quanto maggiormente per li particolart meriti de la sua sig.ra Con- 
sorte, et de la sua servitu dt moltt anni fatta a quella Seren.ma casa; Et 10 
dico tal carica convenendo al musico et non al medico, per tali fondamentt l’ho 
adimandato tale. Ma serivendole saperd emendar Verrore et me ne perdont, 
lettera sua pero prena dt moltissimo amore et gentilezza; sono invitato ad andar 
sino a Mantova dall’Ill. Signor Conte Alessandro Striggio molto mio Signore 
per desiderto che tiene di voler parlar meco passato 11 Rosario, et tornato S. A. S. 
da Maderno, sara facil cosa che giunght fino a Mantova et mt sara carissimo 
st per godere di quella patria da molto da me amata come per ralegrarmt con 
tl Signor Marigliant molto mio Signore godendo sempre come sempre anco godero 
@ ogni sua compita felicita che N. 8S. gle la concedt sempre mentre con ognt 
riverenza a 8. §. Ill.ma bacio le mant. Da Venetia gli 10 settembre 1627. 

Dor. sd. 1h. 

Ser.re Obblig.mo 


Claudio Monteverdi. 





XLIV. Av Marcuese Bentivoc tio, Parma. 


Ill.mo et Ecc.mo mio Sig. et pron. Coll. 


Heri che fu alk g del presente dal curriere ricever un plicco di V.E. Ill.ma 
nel quale vi era un Intermedio et una lettera di V. £E. Ill.ma piena dinfi- 
nita humanita et honore verso la persona mia, et tnsteme una copia d’un capitolo 


276 MONTEVERDI’S LETTERS 


dit una lettera della Sire.ma Sig.ra Duchessa di Parma scritta a V. E. Ill.ma 
nel quale st degna honorarmt di comandarmi con il mezzo di V. E. Ill.ma 
ch’1o ponga in musica quello che da V.E.Ill.ma mi sara comandato. Appena 
ho potuto leggiere due volte 11 detto Intermedio p. Poccasione del scrivere hauta 
essendo giorno che si parte il curriere, ho perd visto tanto di bello che in verita 
son rimasto dedicatissimo con Paffetto a cost bell’opera. Et st ben é statto poco 
il tempo, non per questo son statto indarno 1n tutto, perché di gia gli ho datto 
principio come ben ne faro vedere qualche poco deffetto p. mercore venturo 
aV.E. Iil.ma, havendo di gia visto che quattro generi di armonte saranno quellt 
che anderanno adoperati p. servitio del detto intermedio; Puno che incomincia 
dal principio, et seguita sino al principio delle tre, tra Venere et Diana, et tra 
le loro discordie, Paltro dal princtpio delle ire sino finite le discordie, Paltro 
quando entra Plutone a metter ordine et quiete, durante sino dove Diana s’in- 
comincia ad innamorare d’Endimione, et 11 quarto et ultimo dal principio dt 
detto innamoramento sino alla fine. Ma mi credda V.E. Ill.ma che senza 11 
delicato suo aiuto vedera che ct saranno locht che mi porterebbero non poca difi- 
colta, det qualt mercore née daro pik minuto ragualio a V. E. Ill.ma. Altro per 
hora non intendero fare che rendere prima gratie a Dio che m1 habbi fatto degno 
di poter ricevere cosi alti comandi da cosi alti signort et padront, pregandolo 
insteme che mi facet degno cosi de li effetti come del affetto qual siccurmente cerchera 
di servire a padroni con ogni maggior potere che sapera rendendo infinite gratie 
aV.E. Ill.ma di cotanto favore, pregando insieme Dio che sempre tn bona 
gratia dt V. E. Ili.ma opert supplicandola a rendere p. me quelle gratie mag- 
giort che st pud alle bone gratie di quelle A. Se. me alle quali faccio humill.ma 
et profonda riverenza obligandomili p. suo umill.mo ser.re et a V. E. Iil.ma 
me Linchino et gli bacio la mano. Da Venetia gli 10 sett.re 1627. 


Di V. E. Ill.ma 
Se.re Devotiss.mo et obblig.mo 


Claudio Monteverdi. 


XLV. At Mepesrmo. 
I/l.mo et Ecc.mo mio Sig. et padron Coll.mo 


Supplico V. E. Ill.ma non si meravighiare si per Pordinario di mercore passato 
non ho datto risposta alla humantss.ma lettera di V. E. Ill.ma che la causa é 
statta, che Vecc.mo Sig. Procuratore Foscarini mio singolar signore havendo 
un suo sig. filiolo podesta a Chioggta et quel Sig.r volendosi prevalere de la per- 
sona mia in una certa funtione dit musica, mt trattenne in Chioggia un giorno 
di pin di quel mi credevo che fu lo stesso giorno de la partenza del currtere, et 
ricevuto il plicco di V. E. Ill.ma con dentro un Intermedio bellis.mo et la co- 
misstone insieme ch’io dovessi trovarmt in Ferrara beri che fu alli 24 del pre- 


MONTEVERDI’S LETTERS 277 


sente, et havendo visto tal mio mancamento, mi credd1. V. E. Ill.ma che ne ho 
sentito particolare afflitione al anima, come tutta via sentird per sino che non 
st sia degnata. V. E. Iil.ma di novo aviso di la sua sodisfatione ; essendo dung. 
scorso questo poco di tempo contro il mio volere, vorrei supplicar V. E. Ill.ma 
che st degnasse farmi gratia ch’to potessi restare in Venetia sino alle 7 del venturo 
mese, posctache il signor doge in tal giorno pos... mente se ne va a Santa Fustina 
per rendere gratie a Dio N.S. de la felice vittoria navale et ci va con tutto il 
senato insieme et ivi si canta solenne musica; che subbito fatta tal funtione, 
mt porro in barca con il curriere et vero ad ubidire alli comandi di V. E. Ill.ma 
et sara cosa santa, landare a vedere il Teatro a Parma, per poterle applicare 
pin che sia possibile le proprie armonie decente al gran sito, che non sara cosi 
facil cosa (secundo me) 11 concertar le molte et variate orationi che veggo in tali 
bell.mi intermedti, fra tanto andero facendo et scrivendo per poter mostrar a 
V.£E. Ill.ma altra cosa et maggiore che mi ritrovo; et qui facendo humilis ma 
riverenza aV.E, Ill.ma Da Dio N.S. gli prego con tutto il core il colmo 
d’ogni maggtor felicita; Da Venetia gli 25 sett.bre 1627. 
D.V. E. Iil.ma 
S.e Humil.mo et Oblig.mo 


Claudio Monteverdi. 





XLVI. AL Conte ALESSANDRO STRIGGIO. 


Iil.mo mio Sig.re et Pad.ne mio Coll.mo 


Ho ricevuto due lettere di V. S. Ill.ma a Parma, nel una mi comandava che 
to. glt facessi havere ’ Armida, che cosi era di gusto del Ser.mo Sig. duca mio 
Signore, et insteme ch’to arivassi sino a Mantova; nell altra V. 8. Ill.ma mi 
ha comandato ch’io mi adoperi per haver un castrato soprano de’ migliori, né 
al una né al altra diedi risposta perché procuravo di giorno in giorno essere 
a Venetia et di la servirla. Hora ch’to mi trovo in Venetia che sono tre giornt, 
subbito ho dato da ricopiare ? Armida, qual manderd a V. S. Ill.ma per lo venturo 
ordinario, ragguagliandola del Castrato, che in Parma st trova il mighiore essere 
il Sig.r Gregorio, che serve il Sig.r Ill.mo Cardinale Borghese, qual con fatica 
grand.ma a mio credere si potria rimovere ; vi é anco il Sig. Antonio Grimano, 
et questo manco st potria sperare di havere. Ve ne sono duot altri pervenuti da 
Roma che sono un tal castrato che canta in §. Pietro, ma non mt par cosa troppo 
buona potché ha voce che tira al catarro non troppo chiara et gorgia duretta, et 
poco trillo; vt é ancora un putto di qualche 11 anni, ne questo mi par haver 
voce grata, ha qualche gorgietta et qualche trillo, ma 11 tutto pronuntiato con 
una certa voce alquanto ottusa. Intorno a questi duot, se gusterd V. 8. Ill.ma 
fard qualche passata, ma de gli altri io credo nulla faret. Ho perd lasctato ch» 
gli sij parlato, et come ritorno (piacendo a Dio) che sara agli duot o trei de 


278 MONTEVERDI’S LETTERS 


Paltro mese, meglio informerd V. S. Ill.ma perché tardi son stato a ricevere le 
bumantissime di V. 8S. Ill. Della mia venuta a Mantova mt havera per 1scusato 
cosi al presente perché per Pamor mio non mi é concesso 11 venirct per ritrovarst 
nelle carcert del Santo Ufficio Massimighano mio figho gid passati sono tre 
mest, la causa per haver letto un libro non conosciuto da mio figho per protbito 
ma acusato dal possessor del libro qual medesimamente sta carcerato essendo 
statto ingannato dal possessore che esso libro conteneva solo medicina ed astrologia 
subbito carcerato tl sig.r padre Inquisitore me scrisse, S10 gli davo una sicurta 
di cento ducati di rapresentarmi sino espedita la causa che subbito Vhaverebbe 
rilasciato. Il Sig.r Ercole Marigliani consigliere con una sua spontaneamente 
mt si esibt a favorir mio figlio per il qual suo affetto conosciuto lo supplicat 
di passare ufficto di accettar la mia sicurta con 11 Sig.r Padre d’inquisttione 
sopra la mia annua rendita pagatami da cotesto Ser.mo prencipe mio signore 
et essendo passato duot mest ch’io non bo riceuto alcuna risposta ne dal Sig.r 
Padre Inquisitore ne dal Sig.r Marigliant. 

Ricorro con ognt magegtor riverenza alla protetione dela V. §. Ill.ma a passar 
ufficto con 11 Sig.r Marigliani di questo particolare in favore di Massimighano 
et come stanno gli suot interesst, che non volendo accettar detta sicurta, 10 saro 
sempre pronto a depositare cento ducati atid stj rilassato. Et questo haverta 
gia fatto se havessi hauto risposta dal Sig.r Marighani; In tanto che V. S. 
Ill, favorira mio figlio come son sicurissimo gli pregherd da N. 8S. la salute in. 
queste sante feste di Natale et bon capo d’anno facendole humilissima riverenza 
con bactarle la mano. Da Venetia gli 18 dicembre 1627. 

D. V.S. Ill.ma 

Ser.re obblig.mo 


Claudio Monteverdi. 


[Anno 1628] 
XLVITI. At SeGRETARIO DUCALE ErRcoLte MarIGLIANI. 


Ill.mo mio Sig.re et padron Coll.mo 


Mi fara gratia V.S. Ill. perdonarmi se per la passata posta non diedi subbita 
risposta alla humanissima et cortessima lettera di V. 8. Ill.ma che causa ne fu 
quello che dispensa le lettere, qual stette sino partita la posta a consegnarmi 
le mie ; Vengo pertanto hora non havendo potuto prima a rendere infinite gratie 
aV.S. Ill.ma del cotanto favore che si é spontaneamente esibita farmt per ser- 
vitio di quel povero disgratiato di Massimigliano mio filiolo atid uscischt fuori 
dt quelle carcert, favore cosi grande ch’10 non so mat di poterlo mn una minima parte 
canzellare, qual mi terra cosi obligato che sempre sard tenuto almeno pregar 
Dio per la continua conservatione et esaltatione di se et dt tutta la sua Ill.ma 





MONTEVERDI’S LETTERS 279 


casa. Il favore perd del quale supplico con ogni affetto la molta autorita di V. 
S. Lil. e questo che st degni solamente operare con 11 Sig.r padre inquisitore, che 
lasst andare a casa sua Massimigliano, con il mezzo della sicurta che egli stesso 
mt ha richtesto, che altro non bramo da la gratia di V.S. LIll.ma poiché ho 
portato una collana di cento ducati in mano al Sig.r Barbieri mercante di givie 
ricco che sta quit in Venetia et mio paesano et amico stretto de molti anni atid 
scrivi per questa presente posta al Sig.r Zavarella che tiene gli datij dell’ Altezza 
Seren.ma di Manto in mano, qual’é strettissimo amico del detto Sig. Barbieri, 
che venght da V. S. Ill.ma ad offerirst per far la detta sicurta lut. Altro non 
intendo discomodarla ne supplicarla che nel disporre 11 Sig. Padre Inqutsitore 
al lasciar andar a casa Massimighano. Se ardisco troppo appresso la gratia di 
V. S. Ill. incolpi 11 molto bisogno ch’10 tengo del suo favore et incolpi la sua 
molta humanita et gentilezza che mi ha datto animo al ardire. Ho pot inteso con 
estremo dolore la morte del Sereniss.mo Sig.r Duca Vincenzo che Dio Phabbi in 
cielo st per il particolar affetto che portavo a tutt: quet Sereniss.mt padront in 
particolare a questo Seren.mo Sig.re per quel spontaneo affetto con il quale s’era 
mosso ad aricordarst della debole persona mia con mostrar dt haver gusto et dt 
vedermt et de la debolt compositiont mie st anco perché speravo da la sua benignita 
poter havere il fondo di quella mia pensione o corispontione de li cento scudt; 
et per ottener con maggior facilita tal gratia, m’ingegnavo mettermi da banda 
qualche pocht denaretti, che percid per causa di agiongere qualche cosa dt piu 
andat come fect ad affaticarmt per gli Seren.mt dt Parma; ma la mia sorte 
che mi ¢ statta sempre pin tosto contraria che altro nel pir bello mi ha voluto 
dar questa gran mortificatione ; piacia a Dio ch’10 non habbit perso et tl padrone 
et quel poco di bene che con tanto stento di sangue Dio mt ha concesso, qual 
prego et supplico con tutto 11 core atid 11 presente Sereniss.mo Signore vivi con 
felice tranquillita che come giustissimo che son sicurissimo che é essendo di quella 
Sereniss.ma casa non creddo mat ne crederd che mi levasse il mio, tanto pit 
appoggiato sopra la gratia di V.8. [ll.ma 10 la quale spero di certo mi sara 
favore volissima in aintarmi se bisognasse. Caro Sig.re mi consoli con una parola 
sopra a tal capo che mi dara la vita; et qui humilmente facendole riverenza 
da Dio gli prego con tutto il core ogni continuata felicita. Da Venetia il primo 
gennario 1628. 
D. V. S. Lll.ma 


Ser. humiliss.mo et obblig.mo 


Claudio Monteverdi. 
Ho detto di sopra che il Sig.r Zanarelli vera da V. S. Ill. ad offerirst 


per la sicurta, ma hora ritorno a dire che non sara quello ma bens il Sig.r Gio. 
Ambrogio Spiga Gioioghiere di S.A. 8., questo sara che vera ad offerirst, per la 
sicurta, et per Pamor di Dio mi perdoni del tanto incomodo ; et di bel novo torno 
a farle bumiliss.ma riverenza. 





280 MONTEVERDI’S LETTERS 


XLVIIT. At Mepesimo. 
Iil.mo mio Sig.re et padron Coll.mo 


Ho riceuto favore da V. S. Ill.ma in tempo che quast non era possibile chi 
aricordasse de li stesst suot ; argomento certo che col benigno affetto di V. §. Ill.ma 
st é degnata farmt una gratia de le pin singolari et de le pik intime che potesst 
mat sperare da la mia miglir fortuna, non ho merito perché son il pin debole 
sogetto che siz al mondo, bo perd questo da Dio che conosco un estremo debito che 
devo, et questo non mi sara negato da sua Divina Maesta del che lo supplico 
et prego, che almeno lo possa confessare, se non lo posso pagare; offerisco perd 
ala gran bonta dt V.S. Ill.ma et quella poca di robba che mi trovo et 11 lostesso 
sangue, a questo mondo; et le orationt benche dibolissime apresso Dio. Il Sig.r 
Spiga verra a rilevare V. 8S. Ill.ma di stcurtate, potché cosi havera per lo presente 
ordinario espressa comissione di farlo, in altra mamtera vt sentiret adolorato 
non bramando altro da la sua innatta gentilezza che la sua prottezione che é 
pur troppo, ho inteso come che é fuort de le carcert Massimigliano staré aspettando 
sué lettere per darle un tema con le mie assai differente da quello ’immagina ; 
resto pot doppiamente consolato havendo inteso che cosi vero nella medesima 
mia correspontione, tanto maggiormente appoggiato sopra la bona gratia dt 
V. S. Ill. della quale prego Dio che st degni conservarmela, desiderando dt 
cercar sempre con ogni mia diligenza di mantenermela et conservarmela. Tra 
duot giornt spero tornero a Parma, per metterle a quelle Altexzze Ser.me alPor- 
dine musiche per torneo et per intermedtj di comedia che sit havera a recitare ; 
da di la se cosi gustera darolle nova de la riusctta de le cose; da Venetia per 
bocca del Sig.r Ecc.mo procuratore Contarino mio Sig.re per essere procuratore 
dt Santo Marco ho heri inteso che teme non solamente credde sua Ecc.za che talt 
nozZze non st faranno per questo carnevale ne per questo maggio come mi aveva 
scritta da Ferrara chis faranno al? hora; ma neanche forse pin, tuttavia anderod 
a mettere al ordine quelle musiche che mi sono statte datte da fare, pin oltre 
non posso ne devo. Dio feliciti V. S. Ill.ma mentre con tutto Paffetto del core 
gli bacto le mani et gli prego ogni maggior felicita. Da Venetia ght 9 Gennaio 
1628. 

D. V. 8. Lll.ma 

Ser.re Obblig.mo 


Claudio Monteverdi. 


XLIX. At Marcuese ALESSANDRO STRIGGIO. 


Ill.mo mio Sig.re et padron Coll.mo 


La nova che mi ha datta il Sig.r Ill.mo Marchese Entio hora passato pen 
Mantoa et gionto a Parma, qual é statta che V. S. Ill. e statta tatta Marchese 


—) , 


MONTEVERDI’S LETTERS 281 


4a questo Sereniss.mo novo Sig.re quanto mt s17 statta cara et grata al core, 
Pobligo infinito, che devo, et che deverd sino che haverd vita, et il lungo et con- 
tinuato amore che sempre st é degnata farmene degno usando meco continuatt 
effettt di gratie particolari et straordinarie et lunga servitu ch’ho sempre pro- 
fessata mantener con bramar sempre dessere fatto degno d’essere conosciuto da 
la sua gratia per suo vero et real servitore dichino per me et parlino, et faccino 
fede a V. 8. Ill.ma de la mia consolatione ; supplicola con ogni instante affetto 
che st vogha degnare anco per Pavvenire mantenermi nel medesimo stato di 
gratia, assicurando V. S. Ill.ma che se non potro in altro servirla per essere de- 
bolissimo sogetto non mancherd sempre nelle mie deboli orationt di pregar il Sig.re 
che la continut et prospert in questa et maggior felicita nella sua santa gratia. 
Quanto por mt siz spiaciuto Phaver riceuto 11 comando da V. 8S. Ill.ma che 
di novo Vinvtj ’Armida per trovarmi come mi trovo in Parma, et essa Armida 
havendola a Venetia Dio lo dicht per me. Restat di mandarla a V. S. Iil.ma 
questo Natale per la causa de la morte del Ser.mo Sig.r Ducca Vincenzo che 
sia in gloria; che mat haveret pensato che let se ne havesse voluto compiacere 
per questo carnevale ; Tal mancamento mio se V.S. Ill.ma mi vedesse nel core 
m1 credda certo che estremamente mi affligge; Tal Armida st trova pero nelle 
mant del Sig.r Ill. Mozenigo mio affezionatissimo et particolarissimo Sig.re $ 
hora per lo presente ordinario qual hoggt st parte per Venetia scrivo con estrema 
instanza al detto Ill. Sig.re che me ne honort di una copia et che la dij al Sig. D 
Giacomo Rapallint mantoano et molto servitore a V.S. Ill. cantore in Santo 
Marco et mio carissimo amico al quale hora gli scrivo caldamente atid procurt 
dt haverla dal detto Sig.r Ill.mo Mozenigo suo molto Sig.re et da esso molto 
amato, et che senzs intervallo di tempo se si puo la invij a nome mio aV.S. 
Iil.ma et conoscendo 11 Cavagliere essere compitissimo et 11 detto Sig.r Rapallint 
desiderando estremamente dt farst conoscere Servitore aV.S.I1ll.ma 10 non dubito 
ponto che V.S. Ill. quanto pin presto st puo ght sara mandata. Qui in Parma st 
provano le musiche da me composte in pressa credendo queste Seren.me Altezze 
che le loro Seren.me Nozze st havessero a fare di gran lunga un pezzo prima 
dt quello st tiene anderano et tali prove st fanno per trovarst in Parma cantort 
Romani et Modenest, et sonatort piacentini et altri; che havendo visto queste 
Ser.me Altezze come rieschino per lt loro bisogni et la riuscita che fanno et la 
sicura speranza al occasione che in breve giornt st metteranno al ordine, st 
tiene ché tutti se ne andvremo alle case nostre, sino 11 sicuro aviso del effetto 
qual st dice potrebbe essere a questo Maggio, et alirt tengono dt questo Settembre, 
saranno due bellisime feste Puna comedia recitata con gli intermedi apparent in 
musica et non vi é intermedio che non s1j longo almeno trecento verst, et tuttt 
variati d’affetto le parole de quali le ha fatte il Sig. Ill. D. Ascanio pel Genero 
del Sig. Marchese Entio, Cavaglier dignissimo et virtuosissimo,?altra sara un 
Torneo nel quale interveranno quattro squadrighe di Cavaghert, et 11 Mante- 
nitore sara il Sereniss.mo stesso. Le parole di esso Torneo le ha fatte i Sig.r 
Aquilini et sono pin di mille versi, belle st per il Torneo, ma per musica assat 
lontane, mi hanno dato estremo da fare ; hora si provano le dette musiche d’esso 


282 MONTEVERDI’S LETTERS 


Torneo; et dove non ho potuto trovar vartationi nell affetti, ho cercato di va- 
riare nel modo dt concertarle, et spero che piaceranno. Comisi al Sig.r Barbieri 
mercante ricco dt Venetia che procurasse dt far levare V. 8S. Ill.ma di sicurta 
per Massimighano fatta; et a questo effetto gli lassia una collana in mano 
di cento ducati, ne sto aspettando la risposta et V. S. Ill.ma mi perdoni della 
tardanza. Et qui facendole humilissima riverenza gli bacio la mano et gh pre go 
ognt felicitda. Da Parma gli 4 febbrato 1628. 
D. VF. S. Ill.ma 
Ser. re obblig.mo et sempre humiliss.mo 


Claudio Monteverdi. 


L. Av Mepvesimo. 
Ill.mo mio Sig.re et padron Coll.mo 


Sforzato dal acidente che mi preme al? hanima et confidato nella infinita 
bonta di V. 8S. Ill.ma venga a supplicarla che mi honort dt leggere queste quattro 
parole, et con giovarmi con la sua gratia la supplico con le viscere del core; 
Paccidente é@ questo che credendo che Massimighano mio filiolo fosse affatto 
libero de la sua disgratia, et per conseguenza de la sicurta et d’ognt altro pensa- 
mento gia 15 gtornt fa mt scrive 1 filiolo che per non essere ancora espedita la 
causa di quel tristo che gh portd da leggere quel libro protbito teme di bel nuovo 
andar in prigione, et non sa perché potché di gia ha fatto vedere che la colpa non 
é sua. Hora per tal tema, 10 ne pregat il Sig.r Consigher Marighiant mio Signore 
atid provocasse che 1 filtolo st transferisse sino da me, la qual gratia havendola 
ottenuta et informatom1 bene del fatto et discorerne con Sig.r padri inquisttort 
da Padoa, mi hanno certificato che il filiolo non ha alcuna colpa con che meritava 
star in prigione per alcun tempo; Hor temendo che non lo tornt ad imprigtonare, 
ancora che certificato dal Sig.r Consighere Marighant, Vengo a supplicar V. 
S. Ill.ma degnarsi di trattar di tal negotio con esso Sig.r Consighere Marigliant, 
et pregarla per Vamor di Dito che inctd m1 voglia congiovare atteso che pur 11 
filiolo non tanto non ha errato ma é mantovano et é entrato nel collegio de Sig. 
Medici, et ¢ tanto servitore a V. S. Ill.ma la supplico a la hramata gratia 
mentre di vero core gli faccio humilissima riverenza et da Dio gh prego ogni 
vera felicita. Da Venetia il primo di lugho 1628. 


D. V. S. Ill.ma 
Ser.re obblig.mo 


Claudio Monteverdi. 


— ee oe 
— 


MONTEVERDI’S LETTERS 2.33 


LI. Au Mepesimo. 
Ill.mo mio Sig.re et padron Coll.mo 


La necessita in che mi ritrovo de la bona gratia di V.S. Iil.ma essendo tale 
che gh suprems favort ch’1o ricevo mi fa temere effetti ordinarii cosi é piaciuto 
a Dito per mia estrema mortificatione pormi poiché Daccidente troppo mi fa te- 
mere non puo pero tanto ch’10 non conosca che troppo V. S. Ill.ma mi merita et 
mt honora, Dio mio non tantosto holla supplicata di favore come di lungo senza 
aspettar tempo mi ha favorito et d’effetti et dt estrema bonta d’animo. Conosco 
et conoscerd sin ch’10 vivo il gran debito mio et non havendo altro modo di pa- 
garlo supplicherd Dio che mi atuti con la bona gratia sua versoa V.S. Til. 
con felicittarla et crescerla a que supremt gradi che ella possa mat desiderare 
et la sua Ill. casa tutta insieme. Ho inteso da la sua humaniss.ma lettera come 
che di presenza é statto a parlare al Rever.mo Sig.r Padre Inquisitore favore 
tale che assende al troppo cosi che mi fa arossire, 11 quale ha ripostoaV.S. Ill.ma 
che solamente duot giornt che Massimighiano stit prigione bastera a liberarlo 
affatto; Io sospetto Ill.mo Sig.re et m1 perdoni se parlo cosi chiaro verso alla 
cotanta confidanza di V.S. Ill. Io sospetto et esso insteme ctoé 11 filiolo sospetta 
che non venght corda et che non venght a qualche condanna de denari non or- 
dinaria, et a qualche prigionia assai, assat pin lunga de duot giorni per voler 
esaminarlo in quello che mai habbi pensato non che fatto, st che questa dubttatione 
ancora riuscisse Peffetto tutto al contrario nulla dimeno tal timore concentrato 
nell animo molto lo spaventa et mi creddaV.S. Ill.ma che quasi non passa giorno 
che non pianga et non si affligga per tal concentrato pensiero. Mi ha scritto i 
Sig.r Padre Reverend.mo Inquisitore per lo presente passato ordinario le formate 
parole, che st contenta lasciarmi 11 filiolo quanto voglio; quanto voglio lo voglio 
per sempre rispondo a V.S. Ill.ma. Se ha dunque questa bona tntentione, et che 
ha provato la vita dt filiolo per set mest in donzina, perché non si degnt libe- 
rarmelo et levarmelo da questa tribulatione et me insieme et lasstarmelo esercitar 
la medicina in sua et mia sodisfatione et se bisognasse che pagasst ne venti ne 
venticinque ducati per memoria de la pena atid mat pit non havesse da tornar 
a leggere cose varie et impertinenti cosi fatte ancora che so dt certo che mat pit 
senz’ altro non ct tornera volontiert, gli pagherta caro Sig.re se st potesse ricevere 
cost segnalata gratia la prego con tutto 11 core et con tutta lanima farmt gratia 
che la possa ricevere ; che Passicuro che et al putto et a me dara la vita perché 
certamente per tal pensiero mi sento tormentar Laffetto, mt consolt la supplico 
se é mat possibile che maggior gratia non mi sara di questa, m1 é carisstmo Putile 
in questo mondo, ma molto pi la quiete de Panimo et honor proprio; mt per- 
dont la supplico di cotanto incomodo mentre con tutto Daffetto del core faccio 
humilissima riverenza et li bacio la mano. Da Venetia gli 8 luglio 1628. 

D. V.S. L[ll.ma 


Ser.re humiliss.mo et obblig.mo 


Claudio Monteverdi. 


284 MONTEVERDI’S LETTERS 


[Anno 1633] 
LII. At Sicnor G. B. Don (?) 


Molto Ill.mo et Rev.mo mio Sig.re et padron Coll.mo 


Ad una lettera humanissima dell Ill.mo Sig. Vescovo Cervaro mio singolar 
Sig.re et padron collendissimo inviatami da Padova era annessa una di V. S. 
R.ma, a me diretta,ricca de frutti di honore et di lode cotanta verso la debil 
persona mia, ché ne restai quasi ammirato, ma considerato poscia che da una 
planta virtuosissima et gentilissima come la persona di V. S. Rev.ma, non 
poteva nascere altro frutto che di simile natura, mi tacqui, non ricevendo perd 
la raccolta come degno, ma bensi per conservarla alli singolart meriti di V. S. 
R.ma conoscendomt benst esser pianta verde ma di quella natura che altro non 
produce che frondt et fiort di niun odore, st degnera dunque ad accettar da me 
per risposta le degne lodi de la sua nobilissima lettera, tenendo per gran favore 
che mt honort @essere da let ricevuto per suo humulissimo servitore. Monsignor 
Vicario di Santo Marco havendomi favorito in trattar de le nobil qualita et 
singolart virtu di V. §. R.ma mi notificd come che ella scriveva un libro dt 
Musica, nel qual acctdente, soggiunst che anch’io ne scriveva un altro, ma con 
tema de la mia debolezza per poter giungere al creduto fine ; qual sig.re essendo 
molto servitore al Sig.re, Ill.mo Vescovo di Padova, vo credendo che per tal 
via sua Signoria Ill.ma habbit inteso del mio scrivere, che per altro non sd, non 
curandomi che si sappia. Ma potché sua signoria Ill.ma, si e degnata honorarmt 
cotanto presso alla gentillezza di V. S. Ill.ma la supplico ad intendere di pit 
anco 11 rimanente. 

Sappia dunque come che é vero ch’io scrivo ma pero sforzatamente ; essendo 
che Paccidente che gia anni mi spinse a cosi fare, fu di cosi fatta natura che 
m1 tird non accorgendomi a promettere al mondo quello che dopo avedutomene 
non potevano le debil forze mie, promist dicco in istampa di far conoscere ad 
un certo Theorico di prima pratica, che ve ne era un altra da considerare tntorno 
al armonia, non conosciuta da lui, da me adimandata seconda; et la causa fu 
perche st pigled per gusto dt far contro purre in 1stampa ad un mio Madrigale 
cioé in alcunt passt armonict suot fondato sopra alle ragiont dt prima pratica 
c1oé sopra alle regole ordinarie come che se fossero state solfe, fatte da un fan- 
ciullo che incominctasse ad imparar notta contra notta, et non in ordine alla 
cognition melodica, ma udito egli una certa divisione mandata in stampa in mia 
diffesa da mio fratello, st quetd in maniera che per Vavenire non solamente st 
firmo di passar pin oltre ma volgendo la penna in lode, comincio ad amarmt 
et a stimarmi; la promessa publica perd non volle che mancassi alla promessa, 
perloche sforzatamente tendo a pagar 11 debito, la supplico dunque a tenermti 
per iscusato del ardire, 

Il titolo del libro sara questo: Melodia, overo seconda pratica musicale. Seconda 
(intendendo 10) considerata in ordine alla moderna, prima in ordine all antica; 
divido tl libro in tre parti rispondenti alle tre parti della Melodia nella prima 


MONTEVERDI’S LETTERS 285 


discorro intorno al oratione, nella seconda intorno all’armonta, nella terza intorno 
alla parte Rithmica; Vado credendo che non sara discaro al mondo posciache 
bo provato in pratica che quando fut per scrivere il pianto del Arianna, non 
trovando libro che m1 aprisse la via naturale alla imitatione ne meno che mt 
tlluminasse che dovesst essere imitatore, altri che Platone per via di un suo lume 
rinchiuso cosi che appena potevo dt lontano con la mia debil vista quel poco che 
mi mostrasse ; ho provato dicco la gran fatica che sia bisogno fare in far quel 
poco ch’1o fect d’immitatione, et percid spero st] per non dispiacere ma rieschi 
come st vogha alla fine son per contentarmt dessere pin tosto poco lodato nel 
novo, che molto nel ordinarto scrivere ; et di questa altra parte d’ardire ne chieggio 
novo perdono. / 

Quanta consolatione pot habbi sentito in haver inteso che a nostri tempi st 
sia ritrovato, un novo istromento, Dio lo dicht per me qual prego con ogni affetto 
mantenghi et felicitt la virtuosissima persona del Sig. inventore che é statta 
la persona di V. §. R.ma. In verita ho molto et molte volte fra me pensato sopra 
la causa per ritrovarla, sopra la quale dicco ove st fondavano gh anticht per 
ritrovarne di cotante differenze come hanno fatto che non solamente sono molte 
quelle che ustamo ma molte quelle che st sono perse ne v1 é statto per un theorico 
dt nostri tempt, et pur hanno fatto professione di saper il tutto del arte che pur 
uno né habbino mostrato al mondo, spero perd dir qualche cosa nel mio libro 
intorno a tal capo che forse non spiacera. 

Dala consolatione mia narata, ben puotra argomentare V. 8. R.ma se mt 
sara caro 11 favore promessomi dala sua gentillezza a suo tempo cioé 1m essere 
favorito di una copia di cost degna lettura aportante cose recondite et nove, 
percid la supplico de la promessa gratia, st come a supplico a tenermt per suo 
humill.mo servitore et obligatissimo, et qui facendole humill.ma riverenza 
con tutto Paffetto gli bacio le honoratiss.me mant. Da Venetia gli 22 ott.re 
1633. 

Di V. S. Molto Ill.ma et Rev.ma. 

Servitore Devotiss.mo et obligat.mo 


Claudio Monteverdt. 


| [Anno 1634] 
LIII. At Mepesimo. 


Molto Ill.mo et Rev.mo mio Sig.re et padron Coll.mo 


Due lettere di V. 8. R.ma ho ricevuto, Puna avanti Natale, in tempo che 
mt trovavo tutto occupato nel scrivere la messa per la notte dt Natale, messa 
aspettata dal uso de la cita nova dal Maestro di Capella, Paltra quindict giornt 
fa dal coriere, quale mi ritrovd in stato non ben guarito da una discesa catarale 
che poco dopo Natale mi commincid a sopravenire sopra al occhto sintstro la quale 


286 MONTEVERDI’S LETTERS 


mi ha tenuto lunghi giorni lontano non solamente dal scrivere ma dad leggere ; 
ne per anco mi trovo libero affatto che ancora mi va alquanto travagliando, 
per gli quali dui vert impedimenti, vengo a supplicar V. S. R.ma a perdonarmi 
Perrore de la tardanza mia nel scrivere, lesst quindict giornt fa et non prima 
la cortessima et virtuossissima prima lettera di V. S. R.ma da la quale ne cavat 
affettuosissimt avist et degni tutti da essere molto considerati da me; perloche 
gliene vengo a rendere infinite gratie, bo perd visto non prima, dora anz1 venti 
anni fa tl Galilet che ove nota quella poca pratica antica, mt fu caro all hora 
Phaverla vista, per haver visto in questa parte come che adoperavano gli anticht 
gli loro segnt praticali a differenza de nostri, non cercando di avanzarm1 pin 
oltre ne lo intenderli, essendo sicuro che mt sarebbero riusciti come oscurissime 
zifere et peggio, essendo perso in tutto quel modo praticale antico; perloche 
rivoltat glt miei studi per altra via appogandoli sopra a fondamenti de mighior1 
filosofi scrutatort de la natura, et perché secondo ch’10 leggo, veggo che s’in- 
contrano gli affetti con le dette ragiont et con la sodisfatione de la natura mentre 
scrivo cose praticali con le dette osservationt, et provo realmente che non ha che 
fare queste presenti regole, con le dette sodisfationt, per tal fondamento ho posto 
quel nome dt seconda pratica 1n fronte al mio libro et spero dt farla veder cosi 
chiara che non sara biasimata ma benst considerata dal mondo, lascio lontano 
nel mio scrivere quel modo tenuto da Grect con parole et segnt loro, adoperando 
le voct et gli caratert che usiamo ne la nostra pratica; perché la mia intentione 
é di mostrare con 11 mezzo de la nostra pratica quanto ho potuto trarre da la 
mente de que’ filosofi a servitio de la bona arte, et non a principit de la prima 
pratica, armonica solamente. 

Piacesse a Dio che mi trovasst vicino alla singolar amorevolezza et singolar 
prudenza et avist dt V. S. R.ma, come che il tutto a bocca supplicandola ad 
udirmt 11 tutto dicco ght dire, cosi intorno all’ordine come alli principu et alle 
divistont de le parti del mio libro, ma questo essere lontano me lo vieta; per gratia 
spetiale riceuta da la somma bonta de la Santissima Vergine Panno contagioso 
dt Venetia son in obligo d’andar alla santissima casa di Loreto di voto; spero 
nel Signore presto scioglierlo, con la qual occasione son per giungere sino a Roma 
che piacea al Signore mene facct la gratia per potermt constituir di presenza 
servitore aV.8. R. ma et godere et de la vista et del nobillissimo suono del suo 
nobillissimo istromento et ricever Vhonore de suot virtuosisstmt discorst. 

L’ho visto in dissegno sopra ad una carticella da let mandatamt la quale in 
guisa dt se marmt la volonta per lo contrario me Vha fatto pin crescere, et perché 
nella detta seconda lettera mi comanda ch’io mi adopert con Scapino acio 
posst 10 mandare aV.S. R.ma gli dissegnt de suot moltt tstromenti stravagantt 
che eglt tocca, per il desiderio grande ch’io tengo d’incontrar occastone dt ser- 
virla in questo non havendo potuto per recitar egh in Modena et non in Venetia; 
percrd ne ho sentito molto disgusto ; ho perd usato questa poca dt diligenza con certt 
amict che almeno mi discrivano quelli che loro st ponno ricordare ; cosi mi hanno 
datto la presente cartina che hora qui invio a V. S. R.ma non ho mancato di 
scrivere ad amico che veggea deesst di haverne de pit differenti dal uso gli 





MONTEVERDI’S LETTERS 287 


dissegnt. ‘Fo non gli ho mat visti, ma da la detta poca informatione chio mando 
mi pare che siano novi di forma ma non d’armonta, pot che tutti cadono ne le 
armonie de gli 1strumentt che usiamo. Quello che ho visto 10 gid trenta annt 
fa in Mantova, tocco e fatto da un tal Arabo che al’hora veneva da Turchia 
et questo era loggiato in corte di quella Altezza di Mantova mio Signore era 
una cettera de la grandezza de le nostre, cordata con le stesse corde, et parimente 
sonata, la quale havera questa differenza che 11 coperto di essa era mezzo dt 
legno da la parte verso 11 manico, et mezza di carta pecora da la parte di sotto 
ben tirata et incolata tntorno ad esso cerchio de la cettera le corde de la quale 
erano arracate benst al cerchio di sotto di essa et si appoggiavano sopra al 
scanello quale era posto nel mezzo di essa carta pecora, et 11 dito ptcciolo 
de la mano de la persona fascendo ballare la detta carta pecora mentre toccava 
le armonte, esse armonie uscivano con il moto del tremolo che rendevano un 
gratissimo effetto altro di pin novo non ho udito al mio gusto; staro ne Phaviso 
et sé mt sara acennato cosa che possa portarle gusto non mancherd dt subbito 
mandarliene un dissegnetto; supplicola a conservarmi servitore nelle sua hona 
gratia mentre con tutto l'affetto et riverente gli baccio la mano et da N.S. gh 
prego ogni pit comprta felicitd. Di Venetia gh 2 feb.ro 1634. 
t V. §. Molto Ill.mo et Rev.mo 


Servitore devotiss.mo 


Claudio Monteverdt. 


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Opern Sinfonien. Leipzig, 1903, in 8vo. 

Huycuens, Constantin. Correspondance. Leyden, 1882, in 4to. 

Kinsxy, Grorc. Katalog des Musikhistorischen Museums von W. Heyer, 
2 vols., 4to. 

Kircuer, Ato. Musurgia universalis. Rome, 1650, 2 vols. in fol. 

KretzscHMaR, Hermann. Die Venetianische Oper Und die Werke Cavallis und 
Cestis, Vierteliahrschrift, 1892. 

Bettrage zur Geschichte der Venetianischen Oper. Jahrbuch, Peters, 1907 
Laracz, A. vz. Essais de Diphtérographie Musicale. Paris, 1844, 2 vols., 4to. 
Lavicnac. Encyclopédie de la Musique. Paris, Delagrave, Part I, Vol. II. 
LeicuTentritT, Huco. Claudio Monteverdi als Madrigalkomponist. Samm 

der I.M.G. 1910. 
Geschichte der Motette. 1908. 
Manposio. Biblioteca Romana. Roma, 1692 (Vatican Library). 
Martini Papre. Esemplare o sia Saggio fondamentale. Bologna, 2 vols. in fol. 
Maucars. Response dun curieux sur le sentiment de la musique a@Italie. Edit. 
Thoinan, 1865, in 8vo. 
Mersenne, P. Marin. Harmonie Universelle. Paris, 1836, 2 vols. in fol. 
Mityana, Raraeto. Claudio Monteverdi y los origenes de la opera italiana. 
Malaga 1911 (lecture). 
Parry, Hupert. The Music of the Seventeenth Century. Oxford, 1902, in 4to. 
Pereyra, M. L. LExplication de la lettre qui est imprimée dans le cinquiéme livre de 
Madrigaux de Monteverdi. Paris, Schola Cantorum, 1911, Plaquette in 4to. 
Picenarpi1, Dr. Grorcio Sommi. Claudio Monteverdi a Cremona. Ricordi, 
1895. 1I2mo. 
Pirro, Anpro. Schutz. Alcan, 1913, in I2mo. 
1895, in I2mo. 

Descartes et la Musique, 1907. 

Prop’HomME. FEerits de Musiciens. Mercure de France, 1912, 12mo. 
Prunreres, Henry. L’Opéra Italien en France avant Lully. Champion, 1913, 
in 8vo. 

Le Ballet de Cour en France. Laurens, 1914, in 8vo. 

Monteverdi and French Music. The Sackbut, Nov. 1922. (III, 4). 
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Paris, 1895, in 8vo. 

L’ Opéra Italien, Encyclopedie Lavignac, ‘Tome II. 

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* As this little volume contains all the most important documents for the history of the 
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U 


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Francesco Cavalli. Venezia, 1914, in 8vo. 
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IQOI, in 4to. 
Zacconi. Prattica dt Musica. Venetia, 1596, in fol. 
Seconda parte. Venetia, 1602, in fol. 


INDEX 


ABBATINI, 155 

Ademollo, v, 12 

Addio Florinda, 148 

Adone (Monteverdi), 175, 192 

Adone (Peri), 137 

Agnelli, Scipione, 145 

Aldegati, Domenico, 106 

Ameli, 176 

Aminta, 141 

Andreini, G. B., 134 

Andreini, Virginia, 78, 135 

Andromeda, 135-6, 170 

Anerio, 112 

Arcadelt, 28 

Arianna, 12, 72 ff., 96, 137, 141, 143, 
175, 192 

Artusi, 22, 42, 50, III 

Ascanio Pio, 140 

Aureli, 169 

Ave Maris Stella, 120 


Bacchino, F., 13 

Badoaro, Giacomo, 175, 176, 200 
Baif, Antoine de, 16, 18, 19, 20, 47 
Ballo delle Ingrate, 77, 78, 82 ff., 135, 158 
Ban, Albert, 199 

Banchieri, Adriano, 114, 194, 199 
Bardi, Camerata, 18, 20, 39, 43, 58 
Basile, Adriana, 21, 79, 94 
Benevole, Orazio, 110 

Bernini, 123 

Bertolotti, 11 

Bianchi, 193 

Bordes, Charles, 31 

Borren, C. van den, 115, 116 
Borromeo, Carlo, 4 

Busenello, 176 


Caberlotti, 200, 201 

Caccini, 12, 20, 21, 43, 55, 64, 67, 144 

Caffi, v, 165 

Canal, v 

Canzonette a tve voct, 6, 32 

Catene d’ Adone, 170 

Cavaliere, Emilio del, 20, 42, 55, 59, 60, 
61, 76 

Cavalli, Francesco, 76, 106, 153, 157, 
173 ff., 177, 181, 189, 193 


291 


Cesti, 76, 125, 155 

Chiabrera, 95, 133, 134 

Chieppio, 89 

Cini, 74 

Combattimento di Tancredi e di 
Clorinda, 86, 138, 141, 153, 161 ff. 

Courville, Thibaut de, 16, 48 

Currite popult, 124 

Dafne (Rinuccini), 21, 75 


Davari, v 

Deprés, Josquin, 114 

Diana and Endymion, 83, 140, 141 
Didone, 181 

Dixit Dominus, 119 

Doni, G. B., 150 

Durante, O., 144 


Egisto, 181 
Euridice, 21, 22, 55, 67 
Europa, Madama, 56 


Ferrari, Benedetto, 144, 154, 155, 167, 
170, 175 

Ferrari, D. Cherubino, 57, 72 

Pétis, 47,35, 42, 202 

Finta Pazza Licorvi, 139, 193 

Follino, 73, 77 

Frescobaldi, 40 


Gabrieli, Giovanni and Andrea, 31, 66, 
103, I10 

Gagliano, Marco da, 58, 75, 76, 77, 78, 
88, 89, 199 

Galatea, 170 

Gastoldi, Giov Giacomo, 10, 77, 92, 
IIo 

Gesualdo, Prince of Venosa, 23, 31, 
32, 39, 40, 75 

Giasone, 153 

Giovannelli, 112 

Giustinian, 142 

Glareanus, I13 

Gluck, 173 

Gobert, Thomas, 199 

Gombert, 112 

Gonzaga, Caterina, 137. 

Gonzaga Eleonora, I9I 


292 


Gonzaga, Ferdinando, 55, 74, 75, 996, 
129, 136 ff. 

Gonzaga, Francesco, 55, 72, 95 

Gonzaga, Vincenzo, Duke of Mantua, 
7, 8-10, 55, 90 ff., 95 © 

Gonzaga, Vincenzo II, 196 

Grandi, Alessandro, 106, 125, 144, 154 

Guarini, 44, 77 

Guédron, 158, 159 


Idvopica (prelude to), 82 

Incoronazione di Poppea, 14, 1240, 143, 
151, 166, 177, 182 ff., 192 

d’India, Sigismondo, 43, 58, 144 

d’Indy, Vincent, 202 

Ingegneri, Marc Antonio, 6, 31, 33, 
TIO, 

In illo tempore Mass, 112 


Jannequin, 16 
Jeune, Claude le, 16, 47, 48 
Jevusalemma Liberata, 139 


Kapsberger, 144, 152, 200 


Laconismo delle alte qualita di Claudio 
Monteverdi, 201 

Laetatus sum, 122 

Lagrime d’ Amante, 91, 145 

Landi, 270 

Lasso, Orlando di, 16, 29, 39 

Leichtentritt, 41 

Tah, 36.525 

Luzzaschi, Luzzascho, 31, 90, 144 


Maddalena (Interludes for), 135 
Madrigali guerrieri et amorost, 157, 160, 
198 
Madrigals for five voices : 
Book I, 7, 33 
Book II, 7, 35 
Book ITI, 37, 38, 42 
Book IV, 21, 39, 42 
Book V, 22, 23, 26, 41-46 
Book VI, 145, 147 
Book VII, 145 
Book VIII, 145, 156, 157 
Book IX, 156 
Manelli, Francesco, 144, 155, 167, 
170, 175, 177 
Mantua, Dukes of (see Gonzaga) 
Marazzoli, 155, 177 
Marenzio, Luca, 32, 40, 90 
Marighani, 138 
Marinoni, G. B., 13, 202 
Martinelli, Caterinuccia, 
79, 77, 91, 145 
Martin, G. B., 202 
Mauduit, J., 16, 18, 47, 49 


$3) 5 665-95; 


INDEX 


Mazzochi, 
199 

Melani, Filippo, 195 

Mercurio e Marte, 142 

Mersenne, 80, 122, 199 

Milanuzzi, Carlo, 144, 151, 154, 195 

Minato, 176 

Missa da Cappella, 109, 115, 116 

Monteverdi, Baldassare, 3, 14, 89 

Claudia, 12, 72, 73 

—— Francesco, 13, 93, 151, 194 ff. 

Giulio Cesare, 5, 15, 73, 77, 91 

—— Massimiliano, 13, 137, 195 ff. - 


Domenico, 


154, 155, 179, 











Nanini, 112 

Narcisso, 140 

Negri, Marc Antonio, 104, 105 

Nevone, Il (see Incoronazione di 
Poppea) 

Nevers, Charles de, Duke of Mantua, 
196 

Nozze d’Enea con Lavinia, 175, 192 

Nozze di Tetide, 133 


Orfeo, 12, 37, 44, 55 ff., 91 
Orlandi, S., 136 
Orsini, Paolo, 193 


Palazzo d@’ Atlante, 173 

Palestrina, 6, 90, IIo 

Pallavicini, Benedetto, 11, 24, 91 

Pastor Fido, 44 

Peri, Jacopo, 20, 42, 55, 58, 61, 64, 67, 
74, 93, 137, 199 

Picenardi, v_. 

Pirro, A., 118 

Plato, 5, 47, 79, 80, 161 

Porta, Costanzo, III 

Porter, Walter, 199 


Rasi, 56, 79 

Rinuccini, Ottavio, 17, 21, 59, 74, 75, 
77) 79, 93, 134, 140, 158 

Ritorno d’Ulisse, 129, 166, 175, 176, 
188, 192 

Rolland, Romain, v, 202 

Rore, Ciprian de, 19, 29, 30, 34, 99 

Rosa del Ciel, 61 

Rosaio Fiorito, Il, 165 

Rossi, Luigi, 56, 76, 125, 149, 153, 
155, 172, 173, 174 

Rovetta, G., 104, 106, 144, 154, 157 
193, 199, 202 

Rovigo, Francesco, 10, 90 


Sacrati, Francesco, 171 
Sancés, 144 

Salve Regina, 124 
Saraceni, Claudio, 200 


kee. 


INDEX 


Scherzi Musicali : 
First Collection, 15, 46, 65, 73, I51, 


198 
Second Collection, 153, 157 

Schiitz, Heinrich, 153, 199 
Selva Morale, 109, 125, 192 
Shakespeare, 177, 189 
Sirena, Galeazzo, gI 
Solerti, Angelo, v, 143 
Sonata sopra Sancta Maria, 95, 121 
Spiritual Madrigals for four voices, 6 
Stadella, 155 
Striggio, Alessandro, 57, 59, 130, 133, 

136, 196 
Strozzi, Giulio, 123, 139, 165 


Tett, 74 


Teti e Flora, 141 
Tirst e Clovi, 129, 130 ff., 150, 161 
Titian, 174 


Urbana, Lucrezia, 56 


Vecchi, Orazio, 21, 26 
Verdelot, 28 

Viadana, Grossi da, 10, 110 
Vicenturo, Nicola, 19, 29 
Vittori, 170 


Wert, Giaches de, 10, 14 
Willaert, 29, 30 


Zarlino, 23, 29, 99 
Zefivo torna, 147 


293 





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